


Diving In Too Deep

by The_Local_Cryptid



Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Behavior, Daniel just wants to sleep, F/M, Hoverfish are sea corgis, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Jess Sergio swears a lot, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Riley just wants to find his bro, Sad boi hours, Sea Monsters, Two bros chillin in a hot tub five feet apart cuz they're not gay, You can't convince me otherwise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2019-11-24 15:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 33,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18166742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Local_Cryptid/pseuds/The_Local_Cryptid
Summary: On an alien planet, riddled with disease and mysteries, can we survive? Apparently so, but who said it had to be alone? Watch the adventures of Jess, Riley, Daniel, Wren, and more as they fight for survival.AKA it's real sad boi hours on 4546B. Scoliosis and shenanigans.





	1. Not Naked, But Afraid.

**Author's Note:**

> A Subnautica fic, but deviates from canon in more than a couple of respects. But i'm trying to stick to it as much as I can within reason. Such as, multiple survivors st the same time. And another thing, I began writing this a while ago, but only recently decided to actually make it public. So, as such, i have a few chapters ready already.
> 
> Also this is like, my first fic, let alone my first public fic, so feedback would be wunderbar. Hope you enjoy!  
> \- Ya boi, Red.

_There wasn’t much time._

Jess threw himself through the halls, his feet hitting the metal floor with clanks and thuds, but everything was drowned out by the sound of screeching metal, alarms, shouting, and explosions somewhere in a different section of the place. The entire ship shook around him. He could feel the ship careening down into the atmosphere. Outside the porthole, he could see the clouds of the planet just on the edge.  

Jess continued down the halls, following the signs branded “ESCAPE” until he reached the part of the ship that held the lifepods. He was apparently not the first one to get here, obviously. He found the nearest lifepod chamber, which was branded with a large, painted 5 above the door in red. He burst into the chamber and threw himself into the lifepod from it’s top hatch, sealing it. He then went into one of the seats, pulling down the bar that held him in place. Jess slammed his fist on the “EJECT” button and felt the lifepod lurch. He looked up through the glass of the hatch he entered in, seeing the large spaceship he was on, the  _Aurora_ , steadily be distanced from him. He hardly got to see what damage had happened before he saw the ship erupt in flames. “Holy shit…” Jess mumbled to himself. He was mere seconds away from meeting the same fiery fate of however many other people were on that ship. As the lifepod entered the atmosphere, it shook violently. Jess pressed himself into his seat as much as possible, closing his eyes and muttering a fervent prayer. 

 However, that was interrupted when he heard a clanging in the lifepod. He opened his eyes to see that some loose paneling for the electric box had been shaken loose. The sheet of titanium metal flew around wildly, hitting the floor, ceiling, walls, and gave them some slashes, exposing the wires and sending sparks flying. However, its rampage didn’t stop there. As it bounced around, it flew towards Jess’s face. The metal hit him with the flat part thankfully, but if it weren’t for his space helmet, he would most likely be dead anyway. However, it did knock him out cold. As his unconscious body slumped in the seat, the panel finally embedded itself deep into a wall, and the lifepod hit water. The whole lifepod rocked but managed to not capsize. Waves rippled out over the vast expanse of alien ocean for a short distance, only to be swallowed by the engulfing veil of blue. Alien life of all shapes and sizes scattered underneath the waves as the lifepod made its’ very extreme entrance.  

Inside the lifepod, the heat of entering the atmosphere and the sparks and malfunctioning tech started a fire. The fire extinguisher had been dislodged in the landing, and now lay at the opposite end of the lifepod. Jess lay unconscious, the fire continuously growing larger. 

After about 30 minutes, Jess awoke. Dazed, confused, and… Hot? His eyes cracked open, and nearly closed again because of some bright light inside the lifepod. Wait, lifepod? He opened his eyes again and looked around. The fire had grown, and about half the lifepod was engulfed in flames. The heat was all trapped inside the sealed lifepod, causing it to be stifling even in his spacesuit. “Shit! Jesus, that’s hot!” He pressed the release, but it didn’t open. He pressed harder, yet it still didn’t work. “Come on, OPEN you stupid thing!” He slammed his fist into the panel, and it released him. He tried to get up, but stood up too fast, and stumbled. He raised his hand to try to keep the heat away and backed up. Jess grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it over the fire. Soon, the fire died out, the only hazard being some sparks, but without the heat of entering the atmosphere the only real problem was the electrical box being absolutely destroyed. He looked over the screen displayed the lifepod’s condition. The primary systems and flotation devices were online, but the secondary systems were not. Most likely because the electric box was seriously jacked up. 

There was a radio in the back, but it was also malfunctioning. He could hear a lot of static and an extremely garbled transmission. “Hello? Hello!? Anyone there?! Anybody?” All that played back was static. He punched the wall. “Damnit! Okay, Jess, think. I need to check where I am. Fuck me…” He went to the ladder in the center of the lifepod and looked up. The sky was blue. That’s good, that means oxygen. So that mean’s breathable air. So, he climbed up, opening the hatch and standing on top of the lifepod. He looked out. All he saw all around him was blue, clear water all the way to the horizon. He unsealed his broken helmet and threw it off his head. The landscape, or really ‘seascape’, was broken by the  _Aurora_ looming over the water , with  large bits of it broken, and some large fires over the surface,  which  looking  tiny  compared to the  size of the ship .  The ship must have hit some shallows, but it was far away.  “Holy shit… All those people … What happened?”  He looked around. It was all too much.  He went back into the pod.  There was a PDA there, the device blinked. Jess picked it up and turned it on.  The PDA spoke in a robot ized female voice. “Booting in emergency mode. ” Jess watched the bar fill as it turned itself on. The Alterra Corps. Logo flashed  on screen before fading away. The female voice came back. “Greetings, survivor. Congratulations for not dying. ” Jess scoffed. He’d normally laugh, but he’s stressed right now. The voice continued. “You have suffered minor  head trauma. This is considered a favorable outcome.”   “Yeah, yeah.  I got that.” The PDA continued. “Register your name and passenger number, survivor.”  Jess sighed. “Name: Jess Sergio. Passenger  Number: #098553.”  “Affirmative.  Is this information correct, Mr. Sergio?”  It displayed his personal information. Must’ve gotten it from the   _Aurora_  crew logs. “Age, gender, yadda yadda yadda…  Yeah, seems correct. Also, call me Jess.” “Affirmative. Jess, it would be advised to search the local area to get your bearings. There may be resources available to increase your chances of survival.”  

Jess sighed. The PDA was right. If he stays in this lifepod, there’s no way he’d survive more than a few days. So, he closed the PDA, the high-tech holographic screen disappearing. It was now a long, thin plasteel bar, which he could put into a slot on his left arm where it can just pop up if he needs it. It synced up with his body, and four bars on the bar lit up. These were his body’s needs. Food, water, Oxygen, and his own vitality were displayed. This way, he can keep better track of his survival. He climbed up again, looking at the  _Aurora_  as it smoldered in the sea.  

“The  _Aurora_  suffered extreme damage from an unknown energy source , resulting in  catastrophic hull failure.  Zero human life signs detected.”  He shook his head. “PDA, what’s the state of the  _A_ _urora?_ ” “Scanning…” As it scanned, he looked around.  Ocean, ocean, and more ocean. “The  _Aurora_  has suffered extreme hull damage. The main drive cores suffered damage in the collision. Please do not attempt repairs without the proper qualifications.” “Yeah, I got it.” He grumbled. He took a deep breath, and took a short run, jumping off the edge of the lifepod. He turned his body down, and put his hands in front of him, diving into the blue of the alien waters. He opened his eyes. They stung, like oceans on earth, but milder. The water was the clearest he’d ever seen in his life. He floated around the waters, looking around at the strange new surroundings.  

There were fish that swam by, ones with Gigantic yellow eyes, others with what looked like sacks, and fish that looked like boomerangs with bio-luminescent glowing tips. One of the fishes with the big eyes swam up slowly to him, staring him in the face. He stared back, tilting his head to look at it. He raised his hand slowly to it, and it swam away.  _Understandable,_  Jess thought.  

He decided to swim around a bit. There were beautiful coral reefs with what Jess assumed to be thousands of different species around. He swam up to the surface, taking a breath, and swimming back to the lifepod. He went over to the fabricator, which thankfully worked. He synced up his PDA with it, and opened it, viewing some of the already implemented blueprints inside.  

“The fabricator is designed by the Alterra Corporation, and it’s uses are to take materials that are available and turns them into more valuable and refined resources to increase your chances for survival. As you learn more about this world, new blueprints will be created to use the natural resources of this world to be used at your discretion.” He sighed. He looked at the blueprints that popped up on the PDA screen. “Hmm… I would assume a survival knife is gonna be needed. Maybe a scanner? I am on an alien planet after all. Okay, so for now I guess I’ll just… Swim around?”  

Did he just talk himself into going out into the water and exploring even though he has no idea what’s out there? Yes. Yes he did. He found a swim mask that had a little valve for an oxygen tank attached to it and synced it up with his PDA. It now said that he’d have about 25 minutes of Oxygen before he’d start to black out. That’s better than nothing. He went out on top of the lifepod again and launched himself off, doing a pretty good cannonball into the ocean.  _Maybe I should work on different dives. Might be a good way to pass the time._  He stretched out in the water. “Time to take a little look-see around this place, yeah? Oh- don’t answer that PDA. Also, that’s just weird to say. Can you register a name for yourself?” The PDA lit up, but the screen didn’t come out. Just the bar where it was supposed to project a hologram glowed a soft blue. “Affirmative.” Jess though for a moment. “How about… Maya?” “Affirmative. Changing program name to ‘Maya’. Voice recognition initialized.” “So, does it work, Maya?” “Affirmative.” “Nice. Anyway, let’s move on.”  

Jess continued to swim on, going in-between giant tube-shaped coral tunnels that had all kinds of rocks jutting out of it in small places, going up to the surface, and exploring more. Soon, he had a basic grasp of the small area around him. “You know, we need to start mapping out this planet. Maya, begin mapping out the area I’ve explored, please.” He saw the blue glow come back. He guesses that means that Maya is doing something or speaking. 

As he swam around, he found a massive coral tube, cave. He decided to swim through it again. Maya spoke up. “Scans of the local area indicate that there are useful minerals inside small pockets of rocks, such as the limestone outcrops here. It may be possible to obtain resources from these outcrops.” He looked at the little marker Maya added on one of the rock formations. “So, do I just… Break it?” “Affirmative.” “Well, okay then.” He took a breath, clenched his fist, and hammered on it with a backfist. It hurt a bit, so maybe, just maybe, he should consider not doing that next time. As the limestone shattered, there was a hunk of metal. “Maya, what is this?” “It is a chunk of raw titanium.” “Titanium? Huh. Okay, well, I’m keeping it.” He tucked it away and continued to look around. He broke open a few more outcrops, finding more titanium and some copper as well, before he headed back. He stored away the materials he gathered in a small storage locker inside the lifepod and went back outside. As he swam out to map out the area, he heard his stomach rumble. “Shit, I forgot! I haven’t had anything since lunch yesterday!” He looked around for something. These fish are edible, right? He began to swim after a small school of those fish with the big yellow eyes, trying to grab a few. “Get back here you little… peepers!” He yelled in slight frustration. He grabbed a few, and they wiggled in his hands, but they weren’t slimy or anything. 

 He put them away as well. As he swam back to his little humble abode that is lifepod 5, that blue glow came back. “Scan complete. New alien lifeform discovered. Designated ‘Peepers.’ Adding data.” Jess groaned. Yeah, it’d make sense that he would get to name the fish he finds. “Really, Jess?  _Peepers?_ ” he said to himself. He pulled up the PDA, the holographic screen coming out, and he read about these peepers. 

_Name: Peepers_  

_Discovered by: Jess Sergio_  

_Class: Fauna_  

_Species: Fish_  

_A docile_ _fish native to planet 4546B,_ _th_ _ey have large_ _yellow eyes that are used to spot_ _potential_ _threats_ _and examine its surroundings. The_ _Peeper_ _is inquisitive, but skittish_ _. The eye of a Peeper is pack_ _ed_ _with nutrients and vitamins, and the meat of the Peeper contains_ _protein._  

“The eye? Sounds disgusting, yet intriguing. Maya, how do I cook this thing?” “The fabricator is designed to not only create equipment and refined materials but is also able to cook small animals by removing the organs, bone structure and bodily fluids, as well as cooking it, thus rendering it safe for consumption.” “So, I just chuck it on there and it’ll cook it?” “Affirmative.” He shrugged. Worth it, because he’s kind of starving. So, he took the peeper out of his bag and held it in his hand. As he approached the fabricator, it opened with a little table like thing or something. He was briefly reminded of a baby changing station. He placed the peeper down on the table, and soon, lasers came out from the top, going over the peeper. The smell of cooked fish filled the lifepod. It honestly smelled really good, and almost exotic. Once it was done, he picked it up. It was sizzling, but the heat was bearable. He placed the other peepers two peepers he caught on the fabricator and began to eat the cooked peeper. It was surprisingly delicious,  _especially_  the eye. After he ate two of the peepers, he stored the third one for later. 

After a meal like that, he was now thirsty. But where would he find water? He searched the lifepod and found a couple of bottles of filtered water. He drank one bottle and took the other one with him while he was at it. He then went out there once more, going to find more stuff. He named the area he landed in the Safe Shallows, because it wasn’t that deep in most of the places, save some cave systems he hasn’t gone to yet. After some more miscellaneous collecting, he broke a limestone outcrop by just pulling apart the brittle rocks with his hands instead of smashing it, and it wasn’t titanium that fell out. A hunk of metal fell to the sands slowly, a dull orange, with specks and spots of green. He recognized it after a second, it was copper.  

Maya spoke up once he picked it up, making him jump in the waters. “Copper is an essential component of almost all technological and electric equipment. Your chances of survival just increased to:  _Unlikely, but plausible._ ” Okay, he did laugh at that, now that his mind was preoccupied with survival and other things instead of how many people died.  

So, obviously, he collected more copper, but not because it sounds quite useful. After all, it’s not like it’s needed for almost anything high-tech or electrical. A quick check of the blueprints confirmed that, yes, it’s very important for most things. 

A few hours pass. The alien sun began to set over the blue horizon. He realized that the water looked dimmer, with a slight orange tint, but once he resurfaced for air it confirmed it. It seems like the time on this planet is like time on Earth. He climbed back into the still somewhat smoky and dim lifepod. He opened the top hatch to allow the smoke to escape as he messed around, because there was NO WAY he was going out into those waters at  _night._   He  went to the fabricator to look at the blueprints and make plans for what to get in the morning.  “Let’s see here…  I need an oxygen tank, so where’s that? ” He muttered. As he browsed through the blueprint database, he realized that the  number   of blueprints he had to make tools was exceptionally… Small.  “Uh… Maya? What happened to all the blueprints that were pre-loaded?”  “Running system diagnostic …  Damage to the hard drive sustained during the crash has corrupted approximately 90 % of the blueprint database.  It may be possible to re-create the blueprints by scanning pieces of technology  that are in the  _Aroura_  and various wrecks and crates that have been blown off the ship.”  

 

“Okay, well… That’s…” He sighed as he pressed the button that would give him an oxygen tank. “Okay, well, I’m gonna need a knife. That way at least I have something to defend myself with. And I need titanium and silicone rubber. Okay, I have titanium. What do I need for silicone rubber?” 

 He glanced over the blueprints after he put on his oxygen tank, which increased the time he could remain underwater up to 75 seconds. He found that for silicone rubber, he needed something called a creepvine seed. Now that raises the question: Just what in the hell was a creepvine? He guessed that his PDA took a scan of the local area and designated some… plant as a creepvine. “Maya, where do I find creepvines?” “Creepvines are located in a biome surrounding part of the Safe Shallows. Biome awaiting designation. Adding holographic marker.” He saw the glass on his mask flash slightly. He guessed that it has some sort of display system. He picked them up and looked through them, finding the coordinates that were displayed by a target and a couple of numbers and letters. It read: Creepvine, 100m. Maya spoke up. “It would be advised to go collect immediately. The darkness will give you an 85% chance of being concealed from sight, thus avoiding predators.” Jess didn't like that idea. so he said so. “But it’s night.” Maya decided to not listen to Jess's rather obvious panic and wariness. “Affirmative.” She said. Sassy machine. “But it’s  _NIGHT._ ” “Affirmative.”  

He realized that there was no point in arguing, and cooked a peeper, turned a bladderfish into a water bottle, had his fill, and put on his swim mask. He climbed out onto the top, looking around. The sky was dark, with a beautiful array of stars, sprinkled across the broad, black canvas. And there was a moon, a lot like on Earth, that shone bright with stolen light above him. But the most striking feature was the giant red, rocky moon that loomed past it. Color him impressed. He held up his left arm, pulled up the Screen of his PDA, and snapped a picture.  

Well, now that that was done, he turned to the water. Much like the night sky, the ocean was dark, but instead of being peppered with tiny white lights, the ocean was alive with color. Most of the wildlife has evolved bioluminescence, including some plants. There were schools of moving lights, swirling and twisting in the water. Clusters of mushrooms gave of a soft purple light. The eyes of peepers glowed, staring out into the deep. It was almost peaceful. But he knew better, because there were definitely predators on this planet. It was inevitable. It was nature, in every planet with life. There was predators and prey. He dove into the waters, that feeling of being cold and wet starting to dim. His somewhat long hair flowed in the water. He looked around, and picked up the glowing mushrooms, because they could prove to be useful. And as he had hoped, Maya said “New blueprint acquired.” And displayed a battery. The mushrooms are acidic, but only inside. Picking them up was safe.  

But, however useful batteries may be, he wasn’t looking for them right now. He had very limited time. He kept swimming toward the target displayed on the glass of his mask, and through the moonlight shining into the top levels of the water, he saw something moving, swaying. He instinctively stopped moving and pressed himself into the sand, until he assessed that it was alien kelp. Or, well, creepvine, “Perfect, now where do I get the seeds…?” He swam over, and between dives, he saw nothing that would indicate anything seed-like. He cursed and looked further not the kelp. Turns out, this biome wasn’t small by any means. The kelp stretched on, and he couldn’t see too far because of all the kelp. “Maya, I’m naming this the… Kelp Forest. Continue mapping please.” “Affirmative.”  

As he peered into the underwater forest, he spotted a yellow light. Multiple lights, actually. He went closer and discovered that this was a somewhat shorter piece of creepvine, but the top was thickly vegetated, almost like an underwater tree, and underneath that ‘treetop’ were the lights. They emitted a glow, illuminating the water a few feet around them. They were closely bunched together in clusters and circled around all the way. He reached out his hand, grabbed one of the clusters at the base, and pulled. It came off surprisingly easy, as if it had evolved to detach the clusters. Maya confirmed that, yes, it was a seed cluster. He grabbed as many as he could, wanting to get out of the light as fast of possible. 

After grabbing the seeds, he began to swim back to the lifepod. However, something felt wrong. Even in the darkness, if felt like something was… watching him. He tried to pick up the pace, and he had to calm himself down. He had no weapons, no defense, and no transportation, aside from what he could do with his own body. However, he DID have hunks of straight up metal. He pulled out a piece of copper ore, since it was thinner than the titanium, and a piece of it was shaped into a rather dull point. The side opposite of the point was a bit thicker than the rest, providing a decent handle.  

He kept swimming, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that could prove to be a threat. But just when he saw the edge of the kelp forest, where he thought he’d be safe, danger struck. He heard a shriek under the water. High-pitched, trilling, and extremely loud compared to the relative silence that had engulfed the waters earlier. Jess jumped and turned to see what was attacking. The animal was long, almost twice as long as he was tall, and he was 6 feet tall. This beast might have even been three times his height in length. A third of the body was its mouth. Thin, streamlined, full of teeth as long as his  _forearm_  at least, and the ones at the front were even bigger. The rest of the body was also extremely streamlined, and resembled a killer whale, but much smaller and thinner. It had a grey body, with light purple tiger-like stripes. Its vertebra stuck out at the top, resembling an array of crude dorsal fins. 

And it was charging right for him, mouth full of piercing teeth open.  

Jess managed to just barely kick out of the way and tried to hit the monster with his copper ore, and managed to bash it in the side. Not a fatal hit, but this thing is obviously not used to being hit, it seemed. It let out another shrill cry, this one sounded  obviously more pained, unlike the aggressive sound it made earlier.  

It turned tail and swam away quickly, flowing in between the towering kelp, and disappearing into the darkness. Jess promptly got the  _FUCK_  out. “Maya, this was a mistake.” “Negative. You have obtained a necessary material. Scans indicate that these seeds have high concentrations of oil and silicone, which can be made into silicone rubber and lubricant.”  

“No, I mean the whole coming here at night thing. But I’m happy I’m not going back there anytime soon.” Jess sighed inside his diving mask. “Alright, let’s head home before one of those things follow me.” And with that, he flipped the creepvines the bird before swimming off to his lifepod. The first thing he decided to make was rubber, and then Jess worked on getting himself a weapon. The only thing that could classify as such was the Survival knife, but it was exactly what he was wanting. He selected it and made it, the materials only being a few hunks of titanium and some rubber, which he now had. He sat in the lifepod chair as he waited for the blue lasers to re-arrange the atoms of the materials into a weapon. “Wonders of technology, eh?” He mumbled to himself.  

Maya spoke up, her electronic voice echoing inside the small metal pod. “Weapons were removed from the fabricator systems following the massacre on  _Obraxis_ _Prime_. The knife remains the only exception. For your safety this setting cannot be overridden.”  

The first thing that popped into his head was  _If it’s for my safety, why don’t they remove that feature when an emergency happens?_  But alas; The wonders of technology. After that, the fabricator made the little harmonious tune it makes when it finishes making something, and Jess stood up, walking to the fabricator and picked up the knife. 

It felt heavy in his hands, but not too heavy. Almost a comfortable weight. The design was sleek, practical, and stylish all at the same time. The handle was an extremely hard plastic, most likely the silicone from the rubber having been turned into such, and then the actual rubber, which was soft, yet gripping and firm, in ergonomic places, such as where his palm would be, and small indents for his fingers. The white plastic moved up into a circle, where it joined the metal there, the circle was hollow, and big enough to fit any one of his fingers in and seemed to be the point of balance. And the blade was long and tapered down to a double-edged point, with all the symmetry of Alterra™ Corps. The blade actually had a little Alterra™ Logo on it, labeled **Alterra Arms in bold letters**. The blade also had some serrations on the base of the blade on either side.  

He looked it over in his hand, turning it this way and that, and then stuck his index finger in the hole and spun it. It was perfectly weighted and balanced, and after he spun it, the knife came right back into his hand comfortably. “This right here. This is good.” Jess said with mild impression. 

With a weapon in his hand now, he felt safer. There’s just something about a weapon that gives the human psyche more peace of mind. Not like that’s a bad thing, not at all. In fact, it makes him feel better about himself because now he knows he has at least semi-working survival instincts.  

Jess sat on the chair, crossed his arms, his new knife sheathed on a little toolbelt, and let his head droop, finally getting some sleep.  

He had a feeling that it’d be a long road to salvation. 


	2. This Is Fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Chapter I had already pre-written. New Characters introduced. One scared blonde and one (mostly) apathetic mexican. Hope you enjoy!

It was on days like this that Riley REALLY wished he didn’t exist . First, he had been aboard the Aurora. The Aurora and  its  crew were tasked with building a phasegate on the far end of the Ariadne arm . Simple enough. The journey would take around three or four months, going phasegate by phasegate , until they reached the edge of Federation Space.  Then they’d venture however far into unmarked territory. There, they’d construct a phase gate, and check out the planets nearby for bigger, fancier, more expensive phasegate operations. He wasn’t sure if  they were trying to exhaust the galaxy or themselves. But that’s not the problem.  At least, not the current one. 

Back on track. His best friend, Jess S ergio, had convinced Riley to come with him on Alterra ’s newest and best ship to go expand space. He went along with it, because how could you resist being the first handful of people to discover a new part of space?  They both went throughout training for different positions. Riley was the Chief communications  officer for the Aurora, responsible for relaying back information to Alterra HQ. However, that was easy compared to the job Jess wanted. He was the Chief engineer, responsible for keeping all the machinery up and running in the ship…. Which was basically anything and everything.  Malfunctions? Jess was there. Engine failure?  No problem, Chief Engineer Sergio had it. Loose paneling? He was already in the P.R.A.W.N Suit  with a repair tool. He was so hardworking that Riley was genuinely concerned.  Half of the mechanical and engineering crew weren’t even needed unless in emergencies because Jess was just that good at what he did.

And don’t even get Riley started on the amount of sleep that man got. Jess and  Riley  were in the same bunk room with a few other staff and passenger members , him and Jess on the same bunk bed, obviously. Jess would wake up a couple hours before everyone, do anything he could , and come back to bed after 18 hours of straight work, sleep for 3 (Three) hours, then be back out there, with the other hour being devoted to breaks. Riley couldn’t fathom how.  But he started to get the notion that the entire ship and everything in it would not function without Jess, at this point.

And he trusted Jess, he really, truly did. 

That’s why whenever  He was at the Comms station, talking to some lady at HQ and he  felt the ship shake violently , he knew by the fact that Jess not radioing everyone that he’ll fix it, something was EXTREMELY wrong.  And th en he heard it. An explosion, the sound traveling through the halls of the colossal spaceship . He slammed the alarm button, and saw warnings flashing everywhere about how the Aurora was  losing  hull integrity fast . He tried to contact HQ, but they lost signal. He then rushed out, and heard people screaming , explosions, and the sound of metal screeching. He knew that the Aurora was screwed. Had an asteroid hit them? Quite possible. He was trying to think back. He remember ed  someone at another station near him  was saying something about a huge energy signature. But his thoughts fled in panic as another explosion rocked the ship, sending him flying into a wall. He had to find Jess. 

He screamed his name, his voice drowned out by the  noise of a critical hull failure and a half. But someone else heard him screaming. A man with dark skin came up to him, shouting something. It was in… Spanish? Just then, the red alarm lights  flashed,  and he saw him.  It was Daniel.  He was hired as one of the guards in the Aurora. Not exactly a crew member, but  staff,  nonetheless. However, Daniel isn’t exactly… The NICEST person.  He had his moments, but generally Riley avoided him. He actually voided most people he wasn't forced to be with aside from Jess, because of his social anxiety, _ **B U T**_ That's neither here nor there.

“Get to the escape pods and stop calling for your boyfriend!” Riley shook him  off, but  had a feeling he let go of him instead. “No! Jess is the ONLY one who might be able to fix this!” Then, Daniel slapped him. It wasn’t enough to bruise, but it stung like hell. “Get to the escape pods! I saw the hole , he’s not gonna be able to fix it in time!” He grabbed Riley and hauled him towards the escape pods. Riley tried to break free again. “But he’s probably trying to fix it anyway!  I need to get him!” His cries were ignored until Daniel thre w  him into the e scape pods, shoving him into one of the two chairs and pulling the safety bar down , locking him in.

“Listen! It’s my job to protec t you , and  it doesn’t take a technician to see that this ship is about to BLOW!” He locked himself in and ejected.  Riley couldn’t take his eyes off the  glass  hatch at the top. The  Aurora steadily was distance d from them, and thankfully, Riley could spot other lifepods ejecting. There were more survivors.  He saw a final lifepod, and then the ship exploded almost right on top of it. The poor lifepod and  it’s  inhabitant  were not paid any attention, though, as  both he and  Daniel  watched as their home for the past three months or so, their way of life, their way of ESCAPE, blow up in one of the most morbidly spectacular  ways that Riley had ever seen. The y both sat in shocked, terrified  silence as the pod plummeted to wards the planet. 4546B if he remembered right. Something along those lines. Uncharted, and  that’s an extreme concern for him.  The pod slowed down with it’s thrusters after the initial planetfall, and the flotation devices activated, the large, extremely tough  yellow rubber balloons expanding rapidly. The thrusters shut off, and they touched down , not onto land, but what felt like water.  The pod rocked gently, shak ing around something in the storage container that he just now heard. 

Daniel sighed, and it seemed like he’d been holding his breath. As Riley breathed out shakily, he realized he had been doing the same.  Daniel was quick to press the release button.  As he stood, the waves underneat h the pod  rocked it in the slightest but most unrooting way, and he swayed slightly , holding both his arms out to steady himself . It would’ve been extremely funn y  had they not been under these circumstances, him and Daniel both.

_ Jess _ . That’s a depressing thought. Riley tends to have a lot of those, but this one  word, this one name, seemed to hit him harder than anything he could even fathom. Jess was most likely dead , because he tried to fix the ship to keep everyone alive.  Jess was dead. 

Riley honestly didn’t know if he’d be able to keep going. But then, he thought of Jess more, how he’d react to seeing Riley feeling all sorry for himself.  _ He wouldn’t want that. He’d want me to live. _

Whoa, motivation?! With a renewed vigor he never thought he had, he pressed the release, and got up to go up the pod ladder to see  what happened. Or, he  _ would’ve _ …  if he didn’t fall right into the wall as soon as he got up.  He moaned in pain, his shoul der now probably working on forming a nice, dark purple spot.  _ Good start. _  He stumbled up, using the ladder to stabilize himself, before beginning to climb. He reached up, pushing the hatch out of the way, and hauled his body out  up to his waist. Thank god he did, because otherwise he would’ve fallen right back in and hurt himself more at the sight. There was ocean, miles and miles of just clear blue ocean, and the aurora sitting int the waters, freshly crashed, some of the metal glowing a  heated red. But none of that mattered.

In front of him, literally 2 feet away, was what seemed to be an alien bird of some sorts, the thing looked like a manta ray that decided  “Fuck the ocean, I’m gonna fly.” It squawked  (?) and flew away, seemingly as scared of Riley’s sudden app earance as much as the man himself. Riley cursed the darned flying fish  and hauled himself out  fully. Daniel was waiting on him to move  out of the way of the ladder. But none of that mattered. 

He was  able to get a  good look around now that the fish bird thing wasn’t hogging his attention.  He had to take a moment to think. To process it all. There was the Aurora, sitting in the water, it’s once glorious and monotone body now charred black and half sunk into the endless waves. Speaking of endless waves, Riley JUST so happened to have a healthy dose of  fear of the ocean. But what really drew his attention, was the MASSIVE hole in the side of the ship. It  had some weird kind of energy about it, green sparks and bolts of electricity, before it died completely. Now, Riley was not an engineer or a damage control guy, but that hole didn’t look like a reactor exploding. It was too uniform, too  precise… too…  everything. 

They had been shot down.

That thought struck him hard. The fact that it hadn’t been some freak accident. That something purposefully brought them down in a blazing crash.  Something wanted them dead. He could vaguely hear Daniel as he questioned him about what he saw, but Riley remained lost in  thought. How would they even survive? If there were intelligent enough aliens to build  a weapon that can take down a starship like the Aurora in ONE SHOT, who’s to say they aren’t currently coming there to round up and kill survivors? 

He was having a panic attack for sure. And finally, Daniel pulled Riley down from the ladder. That wasn’t enough, however, and Daniel sighed, giving Riley a solid slap across the face. That brought him back down to earth… or 4546B, technically. 

Riley sat on the rocking floor of the pod, hugging his knees to his chest. He kept mumbling “We’re dead… We’re dead…” He was on the verge of tears when  Daniel squatted next to him. “Riley? Riley! Stop freaking out, okay? Listen to me. I need you to tell me, what did you see?”  Riley took a minute, taking in more than several deep breaths, before telling Daniel. “W-We were shot down… I’m sure of it.  There’s  aliens here, Daniel, and they’ve got  _ weapons _ . Powerful weapons. ”

Daniel looked at him in disbelief. “What do you mean? I heard the radar guys saying that there was a debris field . Not a weapon.” Riley shook his head. “No. No. I heard the lady at the radar station talk about a growing massive energy signature before it happened. And the damage… It’s just too regular.  We’re  _ dead _ , Daniel…” Daniel looked shocked. But his face went stone cold. “No. Not yet, anyway.  We’re gonna run from these damn aliens. Come on. Would …. Jess want you to do this? Sit here and wait to die?” He had to think back on Jess’s name. Sure, too some of the emotion out of the moment, but his point remains . 

Riley shook his head. “Good. Now get up. Let’s take what we can from the pod and try and build a habitat.  There should be stuff in… Here?” He opened a small storage locker.  There were two dive masks, and a scanner, as well as what looked like  a few beacons, along with the standard food and drink. He passed Riley  one nutrition bar and one water bottle. Should do for today, considering they just crashed.  He looked at the hatch in the floor, and the hatch up top. “No use beating around the bush… Let’s go out the bottom .” He pulled back the hatch on the bottom, and clear water looked back up at him. He caught glimmers of movement but couldn’t make out what was there exactly.

Riley didn’t want to do this at all. But  Maybe Jess was alive. Maybe he realized he couldn’t fix it in time and went  to the lifepods? Yeah. Yeah. He’ll go with that for now. Daniel checked the fabricator before they jumped in. “So, a habitat builder needs… Titanium,  quartz, and a computer chip. Got it.” He walked over to Riley, handing him the scanner. “Here, you use this. It’ll probably be better in you r  hands .” He then slipped into the hole, sending  the tiniest splashed of water up into the interior.  Riley, reluctantly, followed suit. The water was cold, but not uncomfortably so. However, moving out from underneath the lifepod  got him into the warmer waters. It was absolutely bizarre, yet beautiful. His inner scientist yearned to come out, and scan everything within a mile’s radius.  So, he began to do that. He followed fish around, scanning them,  even  playing with a few of the  more friendly  fish. Everything seemed okay, at least in this area.  He scanned flora, and all kinds of different corals. He found plate coral, fan coral, brain coral, and  giant tubes of coral. He scanned a fish with large, bright yellow eyes.  

He’s gonna need to read over these later. And all the while, Riley’s scanning proved useful to Daniel and his scavenging. He scanned pieces of debris, and  outcrops that his PDA said could contain resources. So, all in all, good work.  That night, he and Daniel scrambled for the pod, because god forbid going out at night on an alien planet on the first day. Daniel Checked his and Riley’s load. Titanium, copper,  some quar tz crystals all kinds of fish that Riley scanned, and more. A decent haul , if he said so himself. He says so.

But now, they’re tired. Both of their bodies ache with a horrible dull pain.  All that swimming put a toll on them. And Riley’s hands are pruned past what he could’ve ever fathomed.  He  Opened the airtight package of the nutrient bar and unsealed the cap of the water bottle. He munched on the compressed  nutrients. It tasted vaguely like bread. But denser, and not as tasty. It didn’t bother him, though. Daniel decided to go to bed, setting himself into the pod chair. Riley remained on the floor, too tired to get up at the moment. So, he took out his PDA. He decided to run over what he had scanned.  He was reading about the different types of flora he had scanned, and the coral. He was ecstatic. Right next to a ll of these alien plants and other things, there was his and Daniel’s name next to it . He checked the fish. Normally, he had to assign a name to the things he scanned or let the scanner name it. But some of the fish were already named. He guessed the scanner took some liberty, and he shrugged. The fish with the yellow eyes was called a… Peeper? He chuckled. It fits, he guess es. He continues to read, but something cat ches  his eye. He looked, and it didn’t say he discovered  it. It said it was discovered…

_ By Jess Sergio _ _. _

He was alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, let me know if i'm doing this right. Let me know if you like the story, all that jazz. Really would give me confidence as a writer. And who knows, I might make a few request chapters! It's up to you guys. Peace.  
> \- Red.


	3. A Small Fish In A Pool Of Sharks.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything goes up in flames this time around, and nobody knows how to deal with it.
> 
> AKA: Everyone's hopes go up in flames and Jess is a sleepy boi. Also, New character revealed!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a couple other chapters left before i start having to make fresh ones, and oh no, that means an uploading schedule! Not that i'll actually do an updating schedule, i'll probably try to, but I most likely will just type when the inspiration comes. So, wish me luck!

Jess was, well, asleep while Riley had what seemed to be an existential crisis. But, Jess was not one for sleep. He doesn’t need it. It’s for the weak. So, after laying down just long enough to go into the early alien morning hours, he got up. His body’s ache was not as bad now, so that is pretty neat. However, he knows it’ll be worse after today. Just a bit of a gut feeling. Because swimming sucks.  

He stretched in the darkness, and coughed from the smoke. “God damn, I need a repair tool…” He bent down, cursing his tall body for once in his life, and checked. He needs titanium, a battery, and… sulfur? He knows what it is, but where would he get that? He sighed. “Maya, keep track of the ingredients for the repair tool for me.” “Affirmative.” He opened the bottom hatch, letting his feet dangle in the water as he finished a lukewarm cooked peeper. He downed a water bottle, and slipped his mask on at the same time as he went into the water. 

The sea life seems to be lethargic at dark. At least in the safe shallows. He saw the bioluminescence drifting slowly in the water. A few schools of boomerangs, their glowing fin tips glowing bright blue, contrasting the dark waters further out. The eyes of peepers glowing yellow with their black center mass. It gave him the feeling of being watched, but not like when the stalker was chasing him. 

A weird type of alien ray swam past, it’s face seemingly smiling comfortably. There were dark blue and purple spots that glowed neon in the half dark waters. It had two appendages, most likely fins or something of that nature, or sensory organs? If he had a scanner he’d be able to tell. However, scanner-less, he couldn’t tell. It kind of looked like… A rabbit? Those weird fin things resembled ears. It was kind of cute too, and seemingly harmless. He snapped a picture of it with Maya, and documented it as a Rabbit ray. 

He continued onward, surfacing for air here and there. The sun has begun to shine now, and the shallows were buzzing with life. With this new life source, Jess stopped hunting for food, seeing as the fish were more active now, and began to hunt for resources. He had his knife in the sheath, and swam to some coral. It was bright red, and there were small clusters of it here and here on other pieces of coral. He decided to take a sample and see if it’s useful. He tried to just break a piece off, seeing how thin it was. He was surprised to find that it was… soft. 

 It pulsated gently for the short second he had tried to break it, but once it seemed to realize that it was being harmed, it went rigid, forming into a solid slab still attached to the larger base piece of coral. “Well, okay then. Guess he wants to do this the hard way…” He pulled out the knife, and sliced it twice, sending cuts through the entire piece to the base, and broke off the three bits of coral from it’s larger host. He glanced at Maya’s screen, and it revealed that there was uses for this to be used for computer chips and the like, because there’s valuable mineral deposits inside the coral from when it Absorbs water to feed the colony when it’s soft, but grows hard once it feels endangered. 

Interesting. He cut off another piece of the red table coral, and swam back to the pod, dumping his haul in the storage locker, and going back out. He saw some caves. Normally, he didn’t want to explore them. But the light went in the cave for a bit, illuminating things inside, and revealing some valuable resources. Extremely tempting. He saw clusters of quartz crystals, outcrops that contain materials, and a few other things. Even what looked like a chunk from the Aurora that drifted down in there through a current. That’d be a valuable source of titanium. He debated for a second, before surfacing for air, drawing his knife, and carefully swimming towards the entrance. Maya perked up. “Local scans indicate sulfur deposits inside nearby cave systems.”  

He grinned. Sulfur, finally. He went into the cave, picking up resources, and used the bottom of his knife’s handle to break open outcrops in one solid smash. He nabbed the copper, titanium, and quartz from the cave. Now the question was, where was the sulfur? He looked around and saw what looked like a different type of mineral outcrop. It was larger, and darker, there were already cracks in it, revealing bits and pieces of red in it. Gems? Possibly. He swam closer, his earlier caution now faded. As he approached it, he was within five meters of it, about to close that distance quickly, before he heard something. A growl of sorts. Like a stalker’s, but much faster and high pitched, almost like a chihuahua growling. He looked around, and the outcrop burst open, revealing the red insides to be a fish. It was ugly, with one bulging eye, and a round body, covered in long fins, or spines. They seemed weak, and if it wasn’t for the water, would most likely have flopped on the ground. It swam wiggled free of the outcrop, which Jess realized was actually a PLANT, with an outer shell meant to blend in with a cave, yet a bright yellow speckled interior. 

He scrambled away from the odd fish, but he wasn’t faster than it. He looked back to see it kind of curl up, and saw one of the spine things puncture it’s body. It was then that the fish legitimately EXPLODED, and there were flashes of light from the center. It wasn’t just high pressure being released, it LITERALLY EXPLODED ITSELF TO KILL HIM. Or, try to kill him anyway.  

Now, the way explosions mostly work is that they are extremely hot, and the bomb or grenade has a forceful blast wave. On land, that’s mostly negated by the air, since gas can be compressed. However, the blast is still present, and that’s what causes shrapnel to fly out, and why they can be so destructive. But they are negated by air pressure. 

However, in the water, the blast cannot be negated until it is finished with its blast wave business. Meaning, the force of the explosion, without any shrapnel, just force,  _hurt like a bitch_. Luckily, Jess was a decent distance away, and it felt just like someone punched him, and he was still alive. But, it still hurt. Jess let out a pained scream, the water distorting it, making bit bubble up, and a flurry of bubbles escaped his lips, carrying his scream off to the horizon. Metaphorically.  

He clutched his chest, which felt like someone sat on it for a brief second. He shook his head, due to the ringing in his ears. Even underwater, the explosion was loud enough to effect his hearing. Not to mention whatever the blast wave could have done to him. He tentatively swam forward, back into the cave. He looked around. No more kamikaze-fish to speak of, nor their homes. He swam to the plant. It sat open, waiting, for another fish probably. He looked inside. Inside was a yellow powder. It took him a second to process, but then he realized it. His eyes went wide, and he jumped in surprise in the water, before smiling and whooping underwater, causing more air to escape. He shut up quick, and scooped up as much of the powder as he could, and left the cave, quickly surfacing. He breathed in fresh air. He breathed in deep. Now that he has sulfur, he can be what he was trained for. An engineer. A repair guy. He can fix the pod, he won’t have to keep breathing smoke, he can use the radio. 

HE COULD USE THE RADIO. 

This realization struck him. He scrambled back to the pod, Grabbing some weird purple mushroom things. Maya automatically named it. Acid Mushroom. Very creative, he must say. Nowhere close to, say, peepers, but A for effort. 

He climbed into his pod, nearly slipping as he climbed up, and opened the fabricator. He made a battery using the acid mushrooms and a hunk of copper, and made the repair tool. 

He watched as the fabricator’s blue lasers did their job. He heard the little robotic harmony. And snatched up the repair tool, looking over it. It still felt slightly warm from the creating process. But it felt right in his hands. 

He understood this tool. It was the main thing used to fix just about anything broken. It combined bits of the scanner technology and the fabricator technology, in order to scan and identify what’s wrong, and to rearrange the atoms to fix it. 

He instantly pointed it at the broken panel in the wall. The wires began to meld together again, and the sparks stopped flying. The tears and dents fixed themselves. The plugs went into the sockets, and finally, that murderous panel. He yanked it out of the wall, and put it back. It melded back into it’s original position in the pod. He fixed other small gashes, and then, the smoke was cleared out from the pod by the now up-and-running secondary systems. He then went to the back of the pod. The radio was still fried.  

Not a problem. He fixed that as well, and he saw the red light that confirmed that he had signal. He put the repair tool on a sleek loop on his belt, at the perfect spot. He pressed the button, trying different channels, and recorded a distress signal.  

“This is lifepod 5! Can anyone read me? Anyone?” He waited, before he recorded his distress call to broadcast. “This is lifepod 5! I managed to survive the crash, but nearly died on the way down. If anyone get’s this message, head to these coordinates. 5, out.” He Uploaded the coordinates from his PDA.  

There must be other survivors. There has to be.   

He sat down, going over his inventory. He also checked Maya. His PDA was damaged in the crash and lost a big percent of it’s blueprints required to use the fabricator, so he’d need a scanner. That’s quartz. Titanium, and a battery. But before he could head out, he heard an electronic ping from Maya. “New message.” She said simply. He got up, and saw the flashing red lights. He pressed the button. 

To his dismay, it wasn’t a person. Rather, an automated call. 

“This is Aurora. Distress signal received. Please hold, Aurora has contacted Alterra. Rescue ships will be dispatched to your location in 9… 9… 9… 9… 9… Hours! Thank you for your patience!” 

He stood there. His face motionless and devoid of feeling, save for a small twitch of his left eye. The he scowled. But, he couldn’t do anything. So, breathing out a sigh, he bent forward slowly, hitting his forehead against the cursed radio transmitter device mounted on his wall. He punched the button to communicate, and tried contacting Alterra. He found the channel. Static. He was about to hang up, when the static was broken up slightly. He looked up at the radio, before a woman’s voice came from it. He could tell she was a human. “Hello, this is Alterra™ HQ! How can I be of assistance today?” It sounded happy. Too happy. He could tell it was fake. “Yeah, so, this is Chief Engineer Jess Sergio. I was a crew member aboard the Aurora? You got all that so far?”  

“Jess… Sergio, was it?” “Yeah.” “Gotcha. You said you were a Chief Engineer?” “Yep.” “Mhmm… Pulling up the crew logs now.” There was a pause, and she came back. “So, Mr. Sergio-“ “Call me Jess, please. It’ll be much easier.” “Ooookaaay! Jess! How are you, what’s the problem?”  

He sighed. “Have you not gotten the signal yet? What district am I talking to right now?” “I don’t know, but you’re talking to the Alterra help line.” He sighed again. “The Aurora crashed.” This girl, who he doesn’t know the name of just yet, was about to say something, but stopped dead in her tracks. She spoke again, not having any of the previous fake happiness like before. “The- The Aurora crashed?” 

“Yeah. We were heading over a planet to see if it was suitable to build a phasegate near it, maybe even a colony on the planet, but as we approached, I saw something green keep growing. Next thing I know, a giant beam of energy came and hit the Aurora. It was powerful. ONE shot took down the entire ship. I managed to eject at the last minute, but my pod got messed up. So, I went out, got stuff, and fixed it.” “Oh my god, aliens! I KNEW they existed somewhere!” 

 

 

Out of all the things this woman could’ve said, she decided to throw THAT curveball. She sounded super exited too, almost like a kid seeing something mythical in real life. Yet, this wasn’t a disguise entertaining her. This was an actual threat, and she cheers. “I’m sorry, what?” “OH! Uhm, sorry, I’m just… really into conspiracies.” She said. “My names Wren. But anyway! So you crashed, right? Do you remember the name of the planet.?” He thought. “Yeah, I think it was… 4546B. Or one of the planets in the 4546 solar system. It’s a class 3 ocean planet, oxygen atmosphere. The works. There’s alien life like you wouldn’t believe. No, intelligent life to speak of so far, but the peepers seem pretty smart for their size.” “Peepers?” “Yeah. Hold on just a second.” 

Jess went into the water, with his dive mask, and went over to a peeper. He used Maya to take a picture of a small school of peepers who came to investigate him cautiously. Once he saw that the picture was good as it could get on his first selfie since the crash, he climbed back into the pod. He spoke. “You still there, Wren?” “Yeah. Let me see the alien fishie.” He synced up his PDA to the radio, and uploaded the picture. Surprisingly, her response came right back into his ear. The PDA must be able to hold connections wherever there’s radio signals. Interesting. 

While Wren was fangirling about aliens and fish and god knows what else, Jess was swimming, trying to multitask. Most of the conversation faded in and out as his concentration shifted. He was back out there, getting materials. And food, because he’s actually a bit hungry right about now. He grabbed a weird fish that had no dorsal fins, or pectoral, just a somewhat under-developed tail fin. There was an odd glowing hoop from the base of the tailfin to the top of the creature’s head. He took a picture and dubbed this fish as a Hoopfish. Man, he really needs to get better at naming things. Perhaps this whole crash situation might broaden his imagination. Food for thought. 

He heard snickering in his ears, and remembered that, yes, Wren existed. And was talking to him. Right now. He was just about to question her, but she managed to say “A ‘ _Hoopfish’?_ ” Jess now understood why. “Really, Jess, a Hoopfish? You’re the first to discover a new alien life form and you call them peepers, hoopfishes, and god knows WHAT else you’re naming down there.” She continued. 

 Jess sighed. “Look, at least my names have a bit of flavor to them. May- My PDA would designate really boring names. They called a piece of alien coral ‘table coral’, so I think I’m doing fine. I’ll improve as I go.” 

Then, suddenly, something popped into Jess’s head. Why hadn’t he done this sooner? He doesn’t know, but he’s about to do it anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. “Hey, uh, Wren? I know you’re having a grand ol’ time up there at HQ laughing at my naming abilities and looking at alien data I collected, but uh… Are you, perhaps, just maybe,  _possibly_ …  **SENDING A RESCUE SHIP**!?” 

He could HEAR her jump through the mic. He likes this girl and all so far, don’t get him wrong, she seems like a fun person to be around, but her job is to do this type of stuff, isn’t it? So, you’d think that that would’ve been a priority. “S-Sorry! I’ll Get right on that!” He could hear her frantically typing away on her keyboard. “Thank you. Finally, someone sensible at HQ.” A long pause ensued. 

“Uhhhhh… Jess? You’re… kinda past the borders of federation space. So, rescue isn’t exactly LIKELY. And I think it’s a glitch, but it says rescue will arrive in 999,999 hours. That’s… Give or take a few nines, I think.” “Are… are you serious?” “Yeaaahhh, you’re screwed.” “Good deduction there, Sherlock.” He said. “Screw it, uh, I’ll…. Build my own?” “Oh! That’s actually a really good idea! Or, if the Aurora is in an okay enough condition, you could just repair it and go with that!” 

“Alright, let’s go with that. As far as I can tell, most of the damage seems to be on the other side. Where the impact of the gun or whatever it was hit us. Aside from that, there’s definitely a chunk of materials missing from the explosion, some fires, and a few holes. Mostly from the explosion and planetfall. Thank god it was water though, otherwise I don’t think it’d be salvageable.”  

He checked Maya to assess the situation further. Apparently, during his time when he was talking to Wren and kind of phasing out, she had spoken a couple of times. He read over them, and he instantly felt bad about this. He pressed the button for her to read it again so that he could make sure.  

“Replaying message. The Aurora has sustained severe damage due to the impact and subsequent planetfall. No life signs on board. Damage may have reached the Aurora’s drive core. Continuing to monitor.”  

There was no end to how bad that could be. The drive cores were extremely powerful nuclear power plants essentially, in the core of the ship, which used vast amounts of nuclear power to supply energy to the entirety of the ship. Thrusters, lighting, oxygen production, waste disposal, charging bays, all of those things. That naturally required a lot of energy. So, unlike modular nuclear reactors that you put into habitats to power them, these are about a thousand times more powerful, and that’s just for one core. There were  _four_  drive cores powering the ship. If the damage breached the drive core’s shielding, normally, the sealed environment would close, the ship would stop and cool down, and engineer teams were dispatched in full radiation resistant suits to fix whatever problems had occurred.  

But that was in normal operations. There was surely no power on board right now, the explosion had most likely fried all the wiring and motherboards and circuits. But the drive cores may have leaks. That could potentially mean that the Aurora is currently a nuke waiting to go off if the cores reach a super-critical state. That could kill any survivors trapped in the local radiation zone, plus who knows how many animals and habitats. Wren was speaking, but he ignored her. “Hold on.”  

Maya continued. “Replaying message. The Aurora’s drive core shielding has been damaged. Local radiation levels around the Aurora have exceeded safe limits. Please do not attempt repairs without proper training and equipment.” So, as he thought, the drive cores were damaged. That’s a big problem. He climbed out, and looked at the smoldering wreck of a ship. It had turned night on this planet. The dark sky was interrupted twice. Once by the large red moon drifting over the horizon, and a second time by the fires and smoke of the Aurora.  

Maya spoke up once again. “The Aurora’s drive cores have reached a super-critical state.” “ _Shit!_ ” Jess cursed under his breath. Wren spoke up as well. “Jess? Jess! What’s happening? What does that Mean?!”  

“Quantum detonation.” Jess said grimly. 

“Wha-?” 

“ _Quantum detonation_ _imminent_ _. In T-minus: 10… 9…_ _8… 7… 6… 5… 4-*#$@... 3-3-3… 2…_ **_1_ ** **_.”_ **   

The explosion was so powerful that he could feel the shock wave almost instantly, despite being almost a Kilometer from the ship. The Aurora’s front half was destroyed in a beautifully grim fireworks show. The explosion sent up bright orange flames, with a deep black smoke, and the front half of the ship was obliterated, sending chunks flying away, big and small, He saw an entire section of the ship get blown off. He didn’t see where it landed though. He was focused on the painting of destruction presented in front of him. The sound of the deep, sudden, loud, and lasting symphony of death that was the explosion. The explosion sent up almost a mushroom cloud. Maya malfunctioned, and he could hear pictures being taken. The radiation burst from the ship must have had some kind of effect. 

Meanwhile, Daniel and Riley had been watching from around the side a bit, anxiously waiting to see if their PDA’s spoke the truth about the explosion. It did. In the spectacular light show, Riley saw something out of the corner of his eyes. He turned to see… something. It was the white of a lifepod, no mistaking it, reflecting the brightness of the explosion. He saw someone standing of top of it.  _Another survivor_. He couldn’t tell why, but it seemed so familiar. He squinted to see closer and shot up in realization. It was JESS. He saw something heading towards Jess, who had his arms raised up to his sides, like he was accepting fate. He saw what a monstrous wave, most likely created from the explosion, rushing towards Jess’s lifepod. He turned and saw that same wave heading for him. He yelled and turned. The last thing he saw was Jess and his lifepod toppled by the huge wave before the darkness of water enveloped him. 

 

Jess had his mask on. Wren was screaming about how SHE had heard the explosion through the microphone. As the wave rushed him, he knew it’d be a worse idea to try and go underwater to escape it. The riptide would pull him through, smashing him into coral and rocks. It’d kill him. He decided to lose the battle and win the war, letting the wave hit him, and going along near the surface. At least then he stood a better chance of living.  

He held his arms out wide, standing on the edge of his lifepod. The pod might get swept away, or it could remain here by some miracle of God. It might capsize. It might just sink. He didn’t know. He was hit by a wave of radiation right before the wave hit him. He felt his body protest. But then his body shut up fast once the water hit him. It pushed him aside, with all the strength and uncaring mother nature had that no one talked about. He was pulled underwater, tumbling around. He saw all kinds of things in the same boat as him. Peepers stuck in the current. Some weird walrus creatures were swept for a bit as well. They let out loud, deep, warbling cry. It was a bit of a weirdly funny sound, but he knows he’d get tired of it after a bit.  

However, this was all forgotten. His brain hurt severely, having been tumbled this way and that by the current. He was able to turn to the front where he was being pushed and saw a bunch of coral reefs.  

He decided that, right here, right now, at this very moment, was a great place to sleep. He didn’t know why. He just did. So, as the corals came dangerously close, he shut his eyes, and drifted off. 

The current stopped, and instead of crashing into it, he landed right on a big, pulsing brain coral, his suit taking in the bubbles of oxygen they produced. And he slept there.  

 

Meanwhile, Riley and Daniel are still alive, yes. Riley climbed back into the lifepod, sputtering and coughing to make way for some air in his system. Daniel was in the same boat. He wheezed out some unintelligible words in Spanish, but it doesn’t take a linguist to figure out they were curses due to the tone of voice. Anger is a universal language. 

After Riley coughed up about half of the ocean back to itself, he lay on the reinforced titanium floor which he never thought he’d appreciate so much, while Daniel weakly tried to put himself on his hands and knees. His arms and legs were shaking. He was scared, he could see it. And he knew he was scared too. He’d just seen his one chance of escape go up in flames, literally. 

Oh how far away home seemed now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, give me some feedback! Type out theories, whatever! And feel free to ask for requests. And don't forget to actually criticize my work if you so choose. This is my first fic so i'm just trying to see how people react to my stories. Thanks!  
> -Red.


	4. Lost At Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the feeling of dread and helplessness kicks in, how will the survivors deal with the shock of watching their only slight chance of escaping go up in flames?
> 
> AKA Jess is slowly starting to go insane from the isolation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are! Another one of the pre made chapters. After this there's only one more, and i gotta say, i'm excited to see if this will actually kick off! Guess time will tell, huh? Can't wait to see it unfold. I'm really hoping this goes well.

It had been a hectic few days after the Aurora exploded , both parties of survivors having taken a huge hit to morale and any chance of hope.

However,  all of  these  depressive episodes that came and went could be fixed by just being there for each other. During this time, Daniel and Riley grew closer together, and they had a system. Daniel, being the stronger and more fit of the two, was sent on most busy work, while Riley handled the scientific aspect of things. Fabrication, research, scanning,  and that. Some days they’d swap jobs for mutual benefit. It was going well,  despite the fact that  they still haven’t explored further than their home base, pretty much.

Meanwhile, Jess was alone. He had  Wren there, yes, but there was no phys ical comfort. For all he knew, he was all alone.  He’d heard stories about how, throughout the ages, people who are stranded by themselves start going insane. That is… not exactly  a helpful bit of information, but  information  nonetheless.  Wren tried to talk him out of this, because saying that  would most likely quicken  the mental deterioration . Again, not exactly helpful in this situation,  b ut  appreciated  nonetheless.

He swam through the ocean  currents, and  saw the brain coral he had fallen asleep on. Honestly, it was almost comfortable. But he has no idea why he went to sleep. Wren and  him  theorized for a good while, and Jess claimed to have been knocked out, but he knows better. He just… felt compelled to sleep. Almost as if something made him. Of course, he’d never say it. He already confessed that he might be going crazy ,  so saying he suddenly had an impulse to sleep right after being hit by a shockwave of water wouldn’t  help out  his whole ‘missing person case’ that Wren had started talking about. 

After a while, Jess was pulled to attention by Wren calling his name multiple times. “Jess!” “Oh, what?” “As much as I want to help, I’m working overtime right now. I  wanna  go home, sleep, eat, watch my shows.” Jess snorted. “Very funny.” He said as he smashed open a limestone outcrop with the handle of his knife, grabbing the chunk of copper that fell out. “No, Jess, I’m serious. It’s like… 3 in the morning here. Normally that’s not a problem, but I’m at work, and I have a personal life I’ve neglected for the past 8 hours.” Jess sighed. “I mean, alright. Good luck. I’ll try not to die in the meantime, I guess.” “Alright,  seeya . If I’m not on call tomorrow, it’ll be one of the other guys.” 

The transmission ended there. Jess was now thrown into silence, the only noise being that of the planet. And Maya alerting him to swim up for oxygen. He obliged himself the pleasure of living longer and swam up, breaching the surface. His suit automatically filtered oxygen back into his air tank, filling it up in a few moments. Honestly, Jess thinks this planet ruined normal breathing for him forever. This air is f r e s h. The air on board ships is recycled air, and while it’s cool and refreshing, it just… still feels almost suffocating. You only find out after you leave, however. And every time they stop at a phase-gate they expel the recycled air and take in new air. Then the cycle begins again.  But,  it was always polluted in the phase-gate stations or planets, and the air just felt recycled itself. This, this is pure air. Untouched by man. Oxygen. 

Anyway, he decided he needed to go under instead of appreciating the air. So, he did. He was swimming, when he saw a small crater among the sands, filled with cave entrances it looked like cheese. It had a nice flat base, and plentiful resources. There was only a small layer of sand covering a solid rocky base, so there wouldn’t be any foundation problems. And the shallows are generally resource rich, filled with copper and titanium, and is surrounded by other places that can be scouted for rarer resources. So, it’s as good a plan as it gets. 

He needed this. He needed to keep himself busy. Plans are good. They’re wonderful. Grand. One might even say superb. He gathered some scrap metal from the ship, since he now had an abundance of it. Since, you know, the Aurora exploded.  Twice, actually . 

He built himself a nice habitat builder so he could build a  base, and  got to work.

He now had more titanium than any boy could ever need, although he knows that he’ll need much, much more. But this was enough to build a nice couple of X shaped compartments, linked together to provide maximum storage in as little space as possible, for the cheapest amount. Once inside, he had a system of storage. In each small indent that would lead to another compartment but doesn’t, he had a small, configurable locker, with two large lockers on the side, as well as a few of the small lockers on a few of the wall in the hallways. A bit cramped, but it’ll have to do until he manages to find a blueprint for a multipurpose compartment.

Next up was building a fabricator. This required a couple of things, such as a computer chip, gold, and table coral samples. All of these, Jess does… not have those. Table coral is easy, but gold, and a computer chip? Seems like a big jump. He had scanned the limestone outcrops, and Maya said they only contain titanium and copper. Useful as those are, he needs better materials. 

So, he figured that he’d need to find other outcrops. Luckily, he had parked himself squarely on an entire cave system. He put on his mask and went out through the  hatch, and  swam in there. 

It was dark in the cave, but he had made a flashlight. It was somewhat reminiscent of the old earth hair dryers he’d seen before, in the early 21’st century era of tech. It was stark white, with darker accents of gray and black, as is common for Alterra color schemes. It had a handle with a button for the light, and the short but wide tube was where the light was, with a compartment for a battery to be inserted or removed on the back. Practical, simple, and p o w e r f u l.

He turned on the light, and almost turned it back off, it was so bright. But he let his eyes  recover, and  found that it was mainly because he shined it at a patch of particularly white sand. Otherwise, the brightness was very helpful. It lit up the whole cave. He went inside, shining the large white beam of light this way and that. He kept an eye out for any more crash fish. Luckily, he seemed to be in the clear. He saw what looked like a darker limestone outcrop. He scanned it, and it was a chunk of sandstone, containing materials like gold, silver, and lead. Bingo. He smashed it open with his flashlight  handle, and  nabbed the solid hunk of metal that fell out. He shined his light on it, and it flashed a brilliant yellow sheen. Gold. 

He laughed. He got an actual hunk of solid fucking GOLD the size of both his fists. This would amount to a fortune. Of course, money is worthless here, but if he ever got  off  he’d officially decided then and there to buy this planet and restrict anyone from ever setting foot here again. Because this is hell.

And after his greed-filled fantasies were chased away by his rational thoughts, he continued searching. He found even more gold chunks, silver, and a couple of heavy, blocky formations of lead. Maya graciously informed him that with lead he could build a multitude of things, ranging from habitat foundations to radiation suits, and, Jess quotes, “ AajndYGAgjf %&^*&”

Must have been some corrupted data. Shame, it was probably  really important . Well, after that, he went back to it, grabbing as many resources as possible for himself. He now had an ample amount of copper, silver, gold, lead, titanium, and quartz. It will do for now, but he knows better than anyone how quickly resources can dwindle if you have dreams.

He swam back to the habitat with his new bounty, put away  a majority of  the things to lighten the load, and used the resources he needed to build a fabricator, and some solar panels for power. He stepped in his new home away from home., breathing in the oxygen it filters from the water. This, too, shall pass. And with that, he used a chunk of titanium to build a swivel chair in a corner, sat down, and went to bed. Not compelled by anything, no voices, no phantasmal glowing lights, just pure, blissful unconsciousness.

He dreamed of nothing, the world fading out, the only sound being the faint hum of machinery as the habitat keeps him alive. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeet. I got one more chapter before i start running out of them. From there, it's all gonna be fresh. Watch the development happen. May work on other fics too, just to try my hand at different scenarios. But, you know, that is yet to be determined. For now, sit back and enjoy this rather wet ride to the deep end! And of course, call my work garbage, call it divine, and all things between, and let me know if you want a nice little request chapter. I'll try to keep up.  
> -Red


	5. The Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two-dude-crew, on their search for a certain Mr. Sergio, finds lifepod 5... on the ocean floor.
> 
> AKA the crew listens to Jess's slow descent into insanity, concern ensues. More at 8.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! The last pre made chapter. Enjoying the ride so far? Trick question, if you weren't you wouldn't be reading this (Most likely). That is, unless you're like... Some kind of word-masochist. Anyway, hope you enjoy this! I'll try and post soon.

Riley knew Jess was alive, at least, before the Aurora exploded. He remembered he was oriented from the Aurora’s side, but Jess’s  lifepod  seemed to be washed away. He remembers the flash reflecting off a big five, so if he ever found  lifepod  five, maybe Jess would tell him if he had  went  anywhere. Leave a note or something, or maybe he’ll get a radio transmission that tells them where he is. He doesn’t know, he’s just the comms officer, not a scientist. And Daniel was about as far from a scientist as you could get. He was a guard. And somehow, after a weird fish came out of a cave and exploded near them, and Riley went to patch Daniel up, he had found that Daniel was extremely injured, not from the blast, but an old wound of his. Daniel’s spine was nearly broken during a small scuffle between intergalactic criminals and his settlement of a planet in the solar system of sun 3816 (If he remembers correctly), where Daniel was nearly killed in an explosion. The result left him with scoliosis or something akin to that, he never really went to the doctor’s, because it would ruin his job as a guard, and he needed the credits to pay for his family. Which, honestly, was a very large one. Bunch of sisters, brothers, his parents, his grandparents, all that. Very tight-knit group.

So, Riley had a guy with scoliosis to live with. Honestly, it’s not that much different, he just feels terrible for making him go out and do stuff now. But he always manages.

One day, while exploring, Riley had found something. He and Daniel, up to this point, had remained in a different section of the safe shallows (Which were named by Jess. He always seemed to be one step ahead, like the smart but oblivious bastard he is. Well, not oblivious, but he probably thinks he’s all alone right now, and most likely moving fast to try and figure out the situation.) He had discovered something.  Lifepod  five. Jess’s  lifepod . It was about… 500 meters closer than where he saw it last, and it was on the bottom of the sea floor, with a gaping hole of wires and torn metal. He and Daniel had made small little radio pieces for their swim masks, and he radioed him over. “Uh… Daniel?” “Hmm?” Was all Daniel responded  with.  “I found another  lifepod .” “Really? Where? Because there sure as hell isn’t anything floating in our line of sight, and I know for a fact you don’t have the guts to wander too far.” “Ha  ha , Very funny. But uh… It’s underwater.” “Flotation devices not kick in?” “No, it seems to have been ripped open, maybe even exploded…” “Hold on  hermano , I’m coming over.”

Well, when Riley said it had been ripped open, he made himself even more scared. Whatever ripped it open might still be around here. He swam up to get oxygen, before going back down, laying at the bottom among the sand. He soon saw Daniel swimming  over, and  swam up to meet him. “I haven’t checked inside  yet,  I was waiting for you.” “Yeah  yeah , I get it, you’re scared.” “I am not!” Daniel chuckled. “Believe what you want, I guess.” 

They swam over to the pod, checking inside the hole that was torn in it. Daniel pulled out his Flashlight, and Riley pulled out his scanner, because science. There was nothing alive in there, aside from microorganisms and such. The fabricator seems to have been wrecked, most likely from the (Possible) explosion that (May have) Happened. Either that, or whatever tore it open was decidedly a living wrecking ball. That was Riley’s (un)professional opinion. 

“Damn...” He heard Daniel say in his earpiece. “That doesn’t look too good. You think this was the wave?” Riley mused over it. Honestly, that didn’t seem TOO over-the-top, but still unlikely. That  it , until he looked around at the coral. Of course. This big, hulky machine would have been caught in the current’s undertow, and probably got torn right open. As if on cue, Daniel’s flashlight beam wandered near the hole, and Riley say a piece of bright blue rock or something. Definitely some kind of alien coral. 

“Well, that answers our question. Let’s check inside. Maybe Jess left something here for us.” He looked at Daniel, who only shrugged in response. Daniel shined the beam inside, while Riley swam in carefully, to avoid all the sharp metal and frayed wire. He looked around and found a Databox mounted next to  it’s  radio. These usually have, well, data in them, obviously. Either blueprints, or maybe a message, or even just a personal diary. Something. He pressed the button, which opened a little port on the box, and something akin to one of those old earth USB drives. Of course, these were somewhat more sophisticated looking, all hard and angular, one of the designs of Alterra that weren’t smooth and streamlined. It had circuitry designs on the outside, but this was a cover. It was much more intricate on the inside. He held up the special chip on the outside of it to his PDA in his arm, and it glowed blue. “Data transfer complete.” “Nice. What is it?” The PDA talked in  it’s  odd robotic voice. “A recording from a Mr. Jess Sergio. Would you like to listen to it?” “Yes.” 

And then, an audio transmission came in. It was Jess’s voice. “Chief Engineering Officer Jess Sergio’s log. I don’t know how many days it’s been, probably close to a week? At least on this planet. Who knows what time it is on Earth?  Can’t remember. Don't really care. Set the PDA to this time anyway. But it makes me curious. Am I Really staying up for as long as I thought? Or sleeping the right amount of time? Not that I ever cared about sleep. Don’t think I want to sleep again after what happened. Something... Something spoke to me. Or, something, hell if I know. I was swept up by the blast wave of the Aurora when my hopes went up in one singular quantum detonation. The waves took me far away, and I think I was about to be some nice carcass on the coral for whatever to come eat me, but something popped into my head. It was hard to see anything, physically OR mentally, but my mind was clouded with an image.  Some kind of silhouette , maybe? It looked like... God, I can’t even describe it. All I Really remember was the lights. Like eyes. I wouldn’t be surprised, since everything here has some sort of bioluminescence. If it weren’t for the fact that I am fighting for my survival, I’d be utterly fascinated. Not that I'm not already, but... To think of how much  work  we could get done with a colony here. And truth be told, that makes me... Almost sickened. I’d never wish this planet upon anyone, not even some of the worst criminals. It’s... harsh. Wild. And worse than just about anything that we’ve discovered in the universe so far. Yet so serene in its wild tendencies, it has an untouched atmosphere about it... Ah, damnit, I’m rambling. Alright. Well, if anyone IS  actually out  there, most likely listening to my slow descent into insanity decades from now. Or are you an alien, coming back? Or just here to try and do like what the humans did? Fulfill your empire? Destroy thousands of ecosystems and drain entire planets of their beauty? I don’t even know where I’m going with this. Anyway, I think I've mapped some of this out. Here’s hoping I'll go down in the history books... Hurrah. Oh, may as well give some co-ordinates for what I think is my current location. If I'm not there, I'm either dead, dying, or lost at sea somewhere. Find me.” 

Ah yes... The patented rambling of Jess when he gets stressed or bored. And always one to be so enigmatic and confusing. He’s just a regular charmer, isn’t he? Riley didn’t even realize the tears in his eyes until they clouded his vision. He quickly blinked them away. Daniel seemed to sense the general unease of the situation, and at least got the gist that he and Jess were very close friends. “Wow... No wonder you’re looking for him.  Helluva  boyfriend.” Daniel snickered as Riley turned towards him. He was snapped out of his reminiscing and took a  swat  at Daniel with the scanner as he tried to swim away, but Riley was quicker. He landed a decent blow on Daniel’s leg. But he was but a twig, and Daniel pulled security. Nonetheless, Daniel pretended to be hurt, much like how an adult lion acts when their young bite them to encourage them. “Ow! Ri, no, Please!” “Not until you apologize!” ‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry man!” Riley gave a huff in his mask and stalked off, with his face screwed up in a pout. Daniel let out a sound akin to that of a Stifled laugh. At least he was hiding it. 

They  continued on , And Riley checked his PDA for Jess’s coordinates. It sounded like he had built a habitat, which would be a vast improvement to their  lifepod . More storage space, personal rooms, actual privacy, and reactors, solar panels, water filtration machines... They’d be set right up. And, judging by the map so kindly provided to them, he seemed to be in a relatively safe and resource rich area. The Safe Shallows. But... Where? Jess was alone, which was bad, but that also meant he could wander without having to worry about anything much other that himself, and he was always one to have a wanderlust and a general drive to whatever he devotes himself to.

The man would probably map out the whole ocean here with just a  seaglide  and rations if he set his mind to it, probably.

Now there’s a thought. A  seaglide . Extremely simple transportation you could just hold in your hands. Essentially, it was a glorified boat engine with handles, made by Alterra of course, with a couple of flashy devices stuck onto it. However, not useless. It’d haul him around, and no doubt Jess probably had one by now. Intuitive bastard. He sighed, the bubbles escaping up to the surface. He checked his PDA once he snapped himself out of his transportation  fantasies, and  checked jess’s coordinates. He was at approximately... The moon. Or so the Coordinates said. He was  absolutely sure  it was a glitch, and just like that, they were gone. The PDA spoke up. “Signal coordinates corrupted. Loading in last known broadcast location.” A marker showed up on the glass.  He looked on towards it. It was simple blue wave symbol, and not the ocean kind. Like a broadcast wave. Under it were words. ‘CEO Sergio’s last known broadcast location’. A heavy sigh escaped him. Daniel seemed to have heard everything that was going on. He looked at Riley with a look that can only be described as inquisitive. Riley nodded. He turned to the  marker, and  began to make his way. They had enough food and water to at least check it out and come back at the very least. “Where the hell are you, Jess...?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you read this, chances are i'm typing another chapter. Hurrah! Anyway, if you like it, please give me some feedback!
> 
> A few kudos couldn't hurt either.  
> -Red.


	6. You Good?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The equivalent of "New phone, who dis" in the future, and Jess is mentally falling like no tomorrow. Graphic depictions of wounds and sickness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kept losing this chapter, so I hope this doesn't look sloppy or rushed. But i had a lot of things that i probably forgot. So, sorry in advance. I'll try to keep it as good as possible.

Jess Sergio was never one to whine or complain. Sure,  There  was one time he’d voice something every once in a while to break an uncomfortable silence, or just voice his opinion that some might see as complaining, but he never talks  about  how he feels.  Truth be told, he knows that deep down, it’s to protect him from himself. Don’t complain, and you won’t notice. No, don’t bring up how sore your muscles are. No, don’t talk about the cuts and bruises from stalkers and  crashfish , He doesn’t feel them. Ignore the general unease about how his body feels sick, it’s just cosmic jet lag. Voices in his head? What voices? His breath is all labored and raspy? He accidentally choked on some water that leaked in, it's fine. 

So, big surprise when one day, during one of those long day resource grinds and putting them in storage, he stopped dead when Wren  called him. He damn near scrambled to pick up the call, and answered enthusiastically. He was eager for someone to break the deafening silence of the sea. Someone that could help. "Wren! Hey! So, how's life? Good? Yeah, cool, I'm still stuck, so if you could like, talk with me here, that'd be great."

Ah yes. Jess. The paragon of social interaction himself. So stunned by his excellent speech and overflowing charisma, Wren became an entirely different person. "Uh... Wren is off today, my name's Max. Can I help you with anything, sir?" The voice, more masculine and utterly confused, concerned, and a bit nervous, was that of this man, supposedly named Max. This realization hit him hard. Another person at HQ shouldn't be surprising, yet it still was. "Oh. Uh, do you know anything about my whole situation?" Jess asked. "Uh... Nope, can't say that I do. I just started last week, sir. This is my first real call." Max admitted. Jess muttered a curse, but Max didn't hear. "Okay, so... Look around, maybe see if Wren left any notes or whatever. You need to be caught up to speed."

The next couple of minutes were spent catching Max up to speed. He was understandably concerned, and Jess could hear underlying panic in his voice, and he could hear his keyboard. He could  _hear_ his posture. Hunched over the keyboard, watching his fingers as he typed, pressing the keys too hard. Even in this futuristic age, there were still people who are not exactly gifted with technology. But he didn't bring it up. 

"Okay... So, what can I do for you, sir?" Jess sighed. "Call me Jess, Max, I'm not big on formalities." "Oh, well... I mean, the training said to be formal-" "You learn real quick that formalities don't help much in a survival situation." There was an awkward silence, before Max said "Fair point..." Jess then exited his habitat, water running over him. He swam out with a now empty bag, save for food and water of course, and went to go collect resources while conversing with Max. As he went back into his tiny abode, shrugging off a tingling feeling on his body, he went to put up his new haul, mainly consisting of copper, titanium, silver, lead, and a few bits of gold, he leaned back against the wall. His head almost brushed the ceiling of the small compartments. It hit him, once again, that he needed multipurpose compartments, but as his bad luck would have it, it was one of the corrupted blueprints. But this time, he got an idea. "Hey, Max?" He said, his voice having that tone that one would expect while planning or scheming something. Almost a kind of thoughtful drawl, with that clever tone of voice. "Yeah, what's up?" Max said. He had calmed down and grown accustomed to doing this help line thing for the most part. "I need you to do something for me. You ready?" Jess said. "Sure! I think? What do you need?" Max said, finally picking up on the plotting tone of Jess's voice. "Send me some blueprints from your databank. Kinds like some habitat bits. You should be able to transmit them to my radio, and i'll grab them from the data box on it. Think you can do it?" 

Oh. That was much easier than he expected his job to do. "Sure. Give me... two minutes, maybe?" "I'll be waiting." Jess replied. He leaned back against the wall, letting his head fall back against the wall to rest. He could hear Max typing again, and a few hums and such. He heard clicks, and was so ready for this, but he heard an annoyed "Hmmm..." from Max's side. "What's wrong, can't find it?" "No, no... I... It won't let me send you them?" He said, and that hit Jess's plan hard. "Whaddya mean?" "I mean it won't let me send them! Something against company policy that stops it. It says here that it's to stop people from intercepting the transmission and stealing Alterra tech... So, I can't help you. Sorry." 

"Damn... Why in the hell is that a policy?" "I don't know!" "Shitty policy..." Jess muttered. He Grumbled, irked that his plan of just recovering all his data won't work, and sat down in his little swivel chair he build. Because he can't have a room, but a fucking chair is here. "Hey, Jess, I know you're probably mad, but... There might be a way." "And by that you mean?" Jess said. At this point, he'd be open to just about any suggestion. "I  _mean_  that if you had a scanner, you should, theoretically, be able to scan some bits and fragments of tech, and your scanner should be able to piece together the puzzle after a couple of scans, and come up with a blueprint out of what you have available. It's worth a shot, at least." 

Jess thought about that for a second. "Holy shit... That... That's actually a really good plan! Nice going, Max!" "Aw, well, It's nothing. Just happy I'm doing so well on my first call." Jess scolded himself mentally. How did he not think of that? Is he NOT a chief of engineering? Isn't he supposed to know this stuff like the back of his hand. However, his self-scolding was interrupted by Max. "Also, uh, speaking of that, Jess. Are you... You good? You sound like you're hurt. And your breath is all raspy. You sound sick." 

There was a empty silence in response.

"Jess? Jeeess? Are you there? Mr. Sergio!?" Max heightened his voice, but gave up. It seems like he hung up. Max sighed, before looking at the clock. It was almost time for his shift to be over. He shrugged, trying to ignore the nervousness building in his gut as he documented what happened for when Wren came to work next.

Meanwhile, Jess was on the floor of his habitat, writhing on the floor. With that simple question, Max sparked pain throughout his body. He had hung up when he first felt it set in. But now it's much worse. He had looked down, and saw all the wounds that he had. He had been ignoring the pain, well too, up until this point, putting it off as secondary. But now, his senses were kicked into overload. He felt every millimeter of his rended flesh, felt how painful it was to breathe because the bruises on his chest and stomach. He felt the harsh sting of the sea salt in his cuts, he felt his throat as he gasped for air, feeling how rough it was, and he went into a coughing fit, his lungs spasming. He felt a few hard coughs, before something fill his cheek as he lay on his side in pain. It touched his tongue, and he tasted the bitter taste of iron. He spit, sending a nice couple of blood splatters on the habitat floor.He fell into a few more coughing fits before his body seemed to calm down. He clutched at his chest, putting his other hand on the floor as he tried to push himself up. 

With his body physique, it should've been easy. He was lean and muscular, even more so now that he'd been swimming almost non-stop for the past alien week. However, all his muscles seemed to be giving out now, his body wracked with weakness. He pushed on though, and managed to get into a kneeling position. His body was sent into another coughing fit, and he felt like he was coughing out his own organs. He spit out another mouthful of blood as his insides were seemingly torn apart. He was shaking. As he put his hand on his knee to push himself up, he felt just how bruised and battered his hands were. But he needed to get up. He pushed himself up, the large gash he got from a stalker making him painfully aware of its presence.He felt just how clogged with blood his dive suit was, or what was left of it. It was little more than tatters at this point. No wonder they found him so easily. They simply followed the blood in the water. To them, he was injured and weak prey.

He stumbled to the med-kit fabricator he had installed, and nearly punched it open. He grabbed the med-kit inside like it was his last hope, and it kind of was. Opening it, he found bandages, a needle and stitching string, disinfectant, salve, and most importantly, morphine. He grabbed the needle and syringe hungrily, putting it on, removed the cap, and stuck himself with it. After a few seconds,  _Divine_ numbness washed over him. He let out a shuddering sigh of relief. But he knew it wouldn't last. So, he got to work, peeling of the remnants of his applying bandages to what he could, and putting the salve on his bruises and sore, most likely torn muscles. He then went to the hardest part. Stitching up the big cuts. He took a strap of his torn dive suit, pulling it off and tying it around his arm, as a tourniquet. It quelled the bleeding that was now lo longer being stopped by the suit, blood slowly but surely making it's way down his bare arm. It stopped after he tied it off though. He went to work suturing the cut that was in his bicep, a nice sizable gash. He couldn't feel the pain of the needle, thank god for morphine, but he could still feel the cold of the needle, And he used this, guiding the cold needle through his flesh, and shuddering at the feeling of the numb pull as he closed it up. 

It took a painstakingly long time, and he had to inject himself with morphine a few more times, before he was done with all his wounds. He then smeared it with disinfectant, and wrapped himself in bandages. He had his legs wrapped in various spots, but his chest and arms were the worst. His left bicep, where the big gash was, was essentially completely wrapped, and his hands were wrapped as well, from the wrist, and going around the thumb, stopping just at his knuckles, which were bruised and scabbed.  His chest was wrapped, the entirety of his ribs covered, with a couple of the wraps went over his shoulder to keep his bandages in place while also nursing a few bruises there. He let out a shaky breath, before checking his scanner in his hands, opening the little side screen. 

Max had said he sounded sick, and after those coughs, he doesn't doubt that. He held up a bare part of his forearm, and pulled the trigger. The scanner beam ran out. He ran it over his arm, watching lines go over his body, slowly, searching. It finished, and delivered it's verdict. "Infected." He looked in confusion. Maya spoke up. "You have been infected. Detecting large amounts of foreign bacteria in your system, as well as immune system response. Symptoms unknown. Continuing to monitor."

Great. Now he's infected with some kind of alien disease. Beautiful. FANTASTIC.  _SUPERB_. He leaned back in his swivel chair, and tried to fall asleep before the morphine wore off.

Outside, in a kelp forest, Daniel and Riley watch in horror as a stalker thrashes about, covered in green blisters, and apparently in a lot of pain, before it goes still, it's body convulsing in it's death spasms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all (Whoever reads this story that is) enjoyed this chapter! I, again, kept losing the words, so I am really trying to recreate it. Hope i did well on re-doing it.


	7. That's SICK bro!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's see this from another perspective, shall we? It's time for another Daniel and Riley chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy. Ya boi is really tackling the inspiration as it comes. Here's another chapter for you beautiful bastards. Hope ya enjoy.

Daniel and Riley were also doing one of those long grinds for materials on the same day as Jess. They needed to outfit themselves before heading out to find Jess, after all. And, unsurprisingly, they needed a lot of drinkable water. The ocean salt actually dehydrates them faster, so water was important. And There were only so many bladderfish in this area, so, Daniel and Riley had taken to using salt deposits and tube coral samples to create bleach, which in turn disinfected the water. This could be used to make... pretty big reserves of water bottles, so long as you can find the salt. And so far, they had only found these salt deposits mostly inside the weird kelp forest. Riley had learned a while ago that the kelp was named 'Creepvine' by Jess. Quite a fitting name, honestly. And he doesn't really know what's n there, aside from these REALLY cute little fish! Jess named them hoverfish, and he was very confused, until he had scanned it and read that instead of fins, the hoverfish has six appendages, almost like legs, with round fins that can wave to keep the fish in place against the current as t eats the creepvine. It also is just... six fins. And they looked like little sea corgis. Riley had managed o befriend one, feeding it a creepvine sample before he gently picked it up and tenderly put it inside his bag. It's filled with water, so it doesn't matter. But he'll need a fish tank soon... or a habitat in general.

Anyway, with his new friend, who is unnamed at the moment, he and Daniel went to collect salt. Good times. A few jokes here and there, and the general unease of the kelp forest that just seems to be a natural effect of the place.

Now, normally, when Daniel and Riley go out to find salt there, they find all kinds of other things. The rock formations are peppered in limestone and sandstone outcrops, then there was the creepvines themselves. But, hat's not all. Every now and then, they'll find bits of metal salvage, which looked like they had been bitten quite a few times. And on a few occasions, they found  _teeth. BIG TEETH._ So big, in fact, that if he was in a pinch, it would work just fine as a weapon. It was long, sharp, and had a curve in it, most likely to make sure that whatever had these teeth would keep their prey in their jaws as they bit them. 

And aside from the menacing teeth, there was also the SOUNDS. God, Riley just crawls in his skin in this biome. There would be a couple of teeth, some salvage, and in the distance, if you REALLY listened, you could hear something. A high pitched, trilling cry, brimming with an animalistic hunger and anger. And from what Riley could gather, most of the fish he had seen up to this point aren't big enough to make a sound like that. 

Even worse was when he'd turn his head and see the kelp tremble. Something was out there. But they just either were extremely lucky or it was avoiding them. And Riley intended to make the most of that. Gladly. Sign him up. He had grabbed a bunch of salt at this point, and was ready to go back, saying as much to Daniel, when an earsplitting shriek cut them off. They both went silent out of fear, and Riley swam to the ocean floor, keeping low. Daniel followed suit, but instead of going  _away_ from the sounds, he went  _towards_ them. And Riley was forced to follow, because he doesn't want to leave his friend in the lion's den and run off to save his own hide, because he's a friendly idiot. He and Daniel swam up, using the creepvine as cover, before peeking out and seeing what the commotion was.

The sight he saw made him feel sick to his stomach. In front of them was what used to be a sleek, agile, deadly looking predator, very long and streamlined, and in the back of his mind he recognized the teeth now. It had a long, thin snout, and multiple dorsal fins, as well as long pectoral fins. A beast built for speed. However, not as good now. It seemed to be sick, covered in glowing green pustules and blisters all over it's natural camouflage, a purple tiger stripes on a grey backdrop, obviously adapted for hunting in the shadows and the cover of night. 

And it seemed to be in  _agonizing_ pain. It thrashed about, letting out another painful squeal, and twisted and turned in an attempt to escape from the pain, as an animal would try to do. It made him genuinely sad to watch it sit there in pain, almost like watching the documentaries about how elephants on earth were hunted to extinction, and the clips where they were caught in razor wire traps, how it tried to escape, but the wire cutting into their legs, almost cutting the feet off. Before he and Daniel could decide on what to do, the poor animal let out one last, pained cry, this one full of agony and despair, and it lasted much longer. The death cry of the animal went on, and most likely rang out through the entire kelp forest. It then stopped thrashing about, and began to slowly sink, the only movements being spasms of death. He looked at Daniel, who looked just as sickened by that as Riley did, and they both hesitantly went over to it. 

it had ceased moving after that. Just laying in the sand. Riley swam as close at he needed to to scan it, but no more than that, wanting to stay the hell away from whatever plagued it until it's demise. His PDA gave him two files, one of the stalker, named by Jess of course, and the file talking about the disease. He didn't entirely understand, but the last message was clear enough: "Do not consume the flesh under ANY circumstances." 

So, Now they had to worry about an alien disease. Perfect. They promptly beat it back to the lifepod, and once inside, Riley swayed, before climbing up, taking off his mask, and vomiting into the  ocean. Once he had finished, he wiped his mouth off on the back of his dive suit sleeve, and took a swig of water, rinsed out his mouth with it, and spit that into the ocean as well. The taste of bile still lingered slightly afterwards, and He found Daniel looking sick too, but not near enough to vomit. But, he did have that disgusted, concerned look on his face. Riley, not trusting himself to open his mouth again just yet, simply held up a weak thumbs-up to show Daniel he was okay. The sun began to set, and Riley was so glad. He took a couple of sips of water and some cooked peeper to make up for what he had... 'lost' after that traumatizing event. He then drifted into an uneasy sleep. 

Tomorrow, he would go and find his friend. And, maybe, then they would figure out a way to get home.


	8. M.I.A.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and Riley head out to find Jess, but he's not there. The wild goose chase continues as Jess unknowingly avoids them like the plague because he HAS the plague.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to say a quick thank you to anyone who got this far in my absolute clusterfuck of a fanfic, and know that this is only the beginning. There will hopefully be more chapters to come, many, many more. And Jesus Christ will this be a doozy. Mainly because I like fanfics that are long and detailed, so I guess I'd write like that too. But as always, enjoy.

The day had come to find Jess. If they get him, he'll be that much more powerful, with another man who, as far as Riley knows, doesn't have scoliosis or an unhealthy amount of fear and a huge lack of experience in survival situations. Book smarts will only get you so far without common sense and experience, and Riley is decidedly lacking the latter two, simply because the thought of being stranded on an alien ocean planet across the borders of federation space never even crossed his mind. And Daniel is good muscle, but not much else, so while they have the brains and the brawn down pat, they just... Have no clue what they're doing. Jess sounds like he's alone, and would most likely know what he's doing, at least somewhat, by now. 

So, despite Daniel's teasing of Jess being his boyfriend, which he is not by the by, even he knows that Jess is severely needed. So, after the sun rose, they got ready, and had made some seaglides for the both of them to make it easier to move. They were quite cumbersome on land, the uncomfortable bulk of it making it a very awkward thing to haul around. Luckily, doesn't seem like there's any land except the insides of their lifepod, and any habitats they might make. But back to the real world. They had packed their bags full of food, water, batteries, and they had a decent couple of tools between the two of them, with both of them having survival knives, flares, and air bladders in case they need to surface quickly, Riley with his scanner, and Daniel had the laser cuter they found inside the lifepod storage box. The things they put in those things, seriously. 

They looked at each other, nodding, before pulling on their dive masks and entering the water. They both took a short test drive of the seaglides, and turned off the light and radar to conserve battery. Then they headed towards the marker, which was... pretty far away. Luckily, the seaglides were a dream, pulling them along much faster than if they had swam. Plus, it gave them a chance to rest his swim-sore muscles. There was  _one_ obstacle, however...

The creepvine forest that blocked their way provided a very leafy, tangling, jamming problem. The rotor would get caught by the vines sometimes, and so they had to weave their way through, turning the machine and their bodies to navigate. And THAT was a workout, having to twist and turn and curve your body to direct the current like a rudder is hard. Especially for Daniel, who had an almost permanent scowl and grimace as he went through the swaying, shifting kelp. And they seemed to be clear of the stalkers, for now. 

Once they were out of the kelp forest, they both went forward just to be clear of it, but then they both stopped, and surfaced for breath. He could hear Daniel hyperventilating, as he rubbed his back. He stretched in the water, and Riley shuddered at the loud cracks and pops that resonated through the earpiece. After they caught their breath, they continued on, exploring the new place. it was another patch of the safe shallows, seemingly. And considerably bigger that theirs was. After the darker, murky waters of the creepvine forest, the clear blue waters of the shallows was breathtaking. And there was just... so much more here. More fish, more coral, more everything. They focused back on the marker that showed where the broadcast originated from, and got back to swimming with the seaglides. 

They came up to a small indent in the coral and sands, revealing what looked like a giant tic-tac-toe board made of white metal. Then it hit him. "That's Jess's habitat!" He said enthusiastically, and swam down to the hatch. He looked around inside through the little glass window, knocking of it a few times, before looking at Daniel. He simply responded with a confused shrug. Riley was about to do a (technical) B&E. He pulled open the hatch and slipped inside, and the water came into the base, blocked by a bulkhead. Daniel made his way in too, and then Riley closed the hatch, and the hatch room began to drain of the water rather quickly. He adjusted himself so he could stand once the water dot waist deep, and finally, it was done. They set their sea glides down, and Daniel opened the heavy bulkhead, twisting the double sided handle as a series of clicks indicated that the mechanism was being opened. Once it had stopped, Daniel swung the door open, to reveal...

An empty habitat. Well, at least an empty corridor. And it was unnaturally quiet. there was nothing in use, the only noise being the muted sound of the ocean outside and the soft electrical hum as the habitat preformed basic things, like cycling oxygen from he surrounding water and powering the lights. "It's... Empty?" Daniel said. They Walked around, exploring the rather small structure completely in about... three seconds? Riley had found a few left behind wall lockers, with different labels. Stuff like "Titanium" and "Shrooms" and all that. However, there was another locker, labeled "Misc."

The thing that grabbed his attention in that locker in particular, was the fact it was hanging open, with a small databox. He reached over, grabbing the small chip, and downloading it to his PDA. Daniel! You might wanna take a look at this!" Daniel came over quick, and he shared the recording. Riley turned it on, and listened. "Jess's log 2." He said. Even with the sound reverberating off the walls, he could hear it. He sounded sick and ragged. "As Max has so  _graciously_   pointed out, I'm sick. I'm sick, and at the time i was dying. Don't know what I'm sick with just yet, but that just makes me more nervous. It's not in the disease databank, so it's some kind of alien plague or whatever. And la-tee-FUCKIN-da I had to go and get myself infected. I have a couple of theories, but nothing solid. It could have been the effect of some kind of alien bacteria that got in my blood from my wounds, or the effects of some kind of poison I've been hit by, I don't know." He then went into a coughing fit, and looking up he only JUST managed to see the tiniest splatter of blood flocked over the side of the databox. "I don't know... But, that ain't stopping me. It takes more than the alien black plague to stop Jess Sergio, at least in the short term. With this in mind, I'm headed to land. Maybe I'll find some answers. Or something to at least point me in the right direction instead of getting lost going in circles. And if there's nothing else to go on, well... At least I'll be on land. Coordinates attached." It gave a pair of coordinates, which showed up as another marker. It had a little island marker.

Daniel looked at his marker with a sigh. But Riley silently scoffed. "Leave it to Jess to find out where land is, huh? Wiley bastard..." he muttered, but Daniel saw the unmistakable glint of admiration in Riley's eyes. He then saw something that grabbed his attention. How they had missed it upon first entering, but it's unmistakable now. "Yo, Riley, look." He said, wandering over to a corridor. He Knelt down, dragging a gloved finger across the somewhat grated floor. Dried blood. He held up his finger to inspect the dried blood. It was dark, but it didn't look like it came from an artery or vein. It was just... blood. He inspected the area around him, and saw why they didn't see the blood. Most of it was on the bare walls and floor that they hadn't paid attention to, too absorbed in the lockers and trying to find a clue. Riley looked absolutely sick, his skin having turned a ghostly pale. "That's a lot of blood..." Riley said. And he remembered that it probably looked like a lot because it was smeared and dripped down the wall, because gravity, not because he was gushing blood everywhere. 

As they looked closer, they found more ghastly evidence, like a dried, bloody handprint on the glass doors of a large locker, having been obscured because the color. And Daniel turned a swivel chair in a corner to find it covered in blood, with a needle, thread, and blood-soaked bandages. and empty morphine needles and bottles of antibiotics. To make a long story short, it looked like a murder scene. Jess seemed to have recovered for the most part, and had most likely cleared out his base as much as he could. But that is a lot to carry  around. And as if reading his mind, Riley picked up another databox fragment, which had a picture. This is where Daniel got a good look at Jess. He was handsome, if not a little worse for wear. there was a lot more scars on his body, and he saw patched up pieces of his suit, and one of the sleeves had been removed completely, showing a large portion of his arm presumable bandaged under waterproof medical tape. And he was smiling, showing a bunch of obviously self stitched wounds, one on his temple, and one right on his cheekbone. There was also more tape around his neck, like he had bandaged a wound that was on the side of his neck, maybe? 

He could also see the unmistakable bulk of more bandages around his chest, one of his shoulders showing that bulk too, like a one-armed vest. He was, again, smiling, holding up a peace sign, but his eyes were red and bloodshot. But, in the back of the picture, was a  _seamoth. An honest-to-god submersible_. "Wiley  bastard..." Daniel repeated. 

Up in the corner was a little note-to-self: Send this to Wren. try not to sound like a sick bitch.

No wonder he took so much of his base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, they're probably gonna find Jess. in about ten years. Godspeed, Riley.


	9. Land Ho!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess is out, and he discovers that there were others before him. Floating islands, leviathans, and general adventure. (Around the same time frame of the last chapter, but a couple of hours before Daniel and Riley showed up at his old base.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I lost another chapter. I need to hide another body and send in the replacement. But anyway, hope this one turns out good.

Well, when Jess signed up to board the Aurora, Needless to say he didn't expect to literally watch the ship he'd worked so hard to maintain literally crash and burn.

Well surprise surprise when he has, for about the thousandth consecutive time this week, when his fucking planet threw another curve-ball at him. 

He had been approaching the planet, and had spotted something. A dot of green within a sea of blue. Land. An island, inside this vast, never-ending ocean. And he thought he saw a hurricane on the other side of the window, but hey, he was running from an impending explosion, sorry he couldn't stop and look.  _You still suck for not being able to remember, Jess._ A nasty voice in the back of his head nagged. Completely irrational, but it IS there. "Nope, fuck off. You suck for being so negative." The realization hit him as suddenly as the words left his mouth. Did he seriously just have a mini argument with himself? God, he really is going crazy.

Anyway, enough of this voice-in-you-head bullshit.

Jess had prepped himself the moment he woke up. His wounds had... mostly scabbed over, now that he has all the blood staunched with the bandages, and he had repaired his dive suit as well, so it should keep the bandages dry. Speaking of bandages, he had replaced them as they had grown bloody through the night. He took a few more antibiotics to help fight off whatever other infections might try and plague him, had another bit of painkillers, and was ready to start the day. First thing he did was unload all his lockers of their contents, and used a fair bit of titanium to make an array of floating, waterproof outdoor lockers. He then found some of those boxes and cargo crates he couldn't open, using his knife to cut off some of the cargo netting, and welded on a rod with a loop he had made with his fabricator, and essentially made a trawl net for the lockers. He then cooked enough food and made enough water to last him the journey, carrying those on his person, before hopping in his beautiful seamoth. She was a stark white, one-seater submersible if you wanted to get technical. It had a sleek, rounded design, with a central bubble of sorts, and a aerodynamic body, with two "Arms" that protruded forward like the claws of a crab. It had two bright headlights, and in the back was an array of low-velocity, multi-directional thrusters, which basically translates to beautiful grace and agility underwater OR in space. The Aurora had a bunch of these to salvage materials for asteroids or something. So, he found a pretty decent chunks of half crushed and broken seamoths, and his scanner determined how it worked. Then he had to build a mobile vehicle bay, and had to gather up the material for the seamoth, which wasn't a lot. Lubricant, a titanium ingot, and a powercell. 

It was a dream,. As Maya so caringly put it: "The Seamoth is a fast, safe mode of transportation, but remember that swimming is good for your glutes and endorphin levels."

Yeah, thanks Maya. Jess is pretty sure, and bu that he means absolutely sure, that this is the strongest he's ever been in his entire life. He now found himself able to go through the water with hardly a problem, and his body feels much harder than he was used to. And this is not even taking into account the fact he exercised like crazy before. But anyway, being able to not have to swim with all these cuts is obviously a much better alternative. 

So, once he had packed all his stuff, or as much as he could anyway, because he wanted to leave the habitat and some stuff in there just in case he finds nothing. A home to fall back to, anyway. He set out as the alien sun first began to peek over the choppy blue horizon, his seamoth whirring silently with a engine that, a hundred years ago, would've sounded straight out of a sci-fi film. He didn't mind. It was comforting, but maybe just because he worked on machines. And a thought occurred to him, he needs to give it a name! He thought, and pondered, and... well, any other word for it there was he probably did it. Until it hit him. The seamoth was a godsend, so, he'd name it angel. The Seamoth had an onboard AI, not like Maya, but close. "Seamoth, change name to Angel." "Affirmative, Captain." Came the robotic response. The mechanical voice was like Maya's, only a bit deeper, and SLIGHTLY choppier. But it was okay. 

He continued to drive along, the currents parting over the rounded glass window, as he drove through. And a problem presented it'self. The creepvine forest. It he gets his net stuck on a creepvine, if could yank the weld and potentially damage the seamoth, so he drove carefully. Thankfully, the stalkers seemed rather distant today, or just plain busy, because the entire trek went off without a hitch. He was now in territory he didn't know. After the murky green-ish waters of the Creepvine forest, there was clear water... with nothing to break it. Ahead of him lied a vast expanse of sprawling dunes and the occasional rock spire to break it, covered in a thick blanket of red, flowing sea grass. 

It kind of reminded him of the plateaus on earth, the pictures he had seen of them. Antiques, well-preserved yet extremely old, of the world at least three centuries back, where in the American nation, large Plateaus rose up, with flat tops, creating sheer cliffs, with beautiful forests and valleys, teeming with wildlife. But then again, that was about three centuries ago, if memory serves correct, and now Earth is nothing much other than a ruined planet with people still there, surprisingly, trying to "Re-vitalize" the planet. Fools. 

"Maya, begin charting out another section of the map. This will be called the Grassy Plateaus." "Affirmative. Beginning to map." The blue bar lit up, and he continued on. The place was nearly empty, save for the things hidden in the grass and such. Crystals of quartz gleaming under the light when the grass sways out of the way, outcrops of sandstone and limestone peppering the cliffs and spires. All that. But... no LIFE. He should feel extremely alarmed, yet he isn't. Confused, yes, but nothing much past that. 

. Just a kind of insatiable curiosity. This planet never ceases to surprise him. If it weren't for the pain, he'd say he was in some weird fever-dream/nightmare hybrid. 

Then again, he also figured that this could be possible. However, he didn't think he'd see it like this from a survival perspective. He was ripped out of his thoughts by a snarl. He looked down to see the sand and grass disturbed, like a depth charge just went off, and a cloud of sand got flung up. Suddenly as the sand cloud appeared, a large creature popped out, wide mouth full of dozens of  razor sharp  teeth. It's a shark, the last bit of fleeing logic presented before instinct kicked in. He set the acceleration to max and veered up, and although he felt a thud shake Angel, once he swerved to keep an eye on his opponent, he saw the weird shark reeling. He must have hit it with the mass of metal lockers full of metal and such in a net, like a huge underwater flail. This emboldened him, as he sped back down. In these adrenaline-filled moments, seconds passed like hours. Everything felt like it was in slow-motion.

He got a good look at his opponent in these agonizingly slow seconds. It had a shark like appearance, with all those teeth, and a  fin , but that's about where the resemblance ended. The thing looked more akin to a bug, or maybe an armadillo.  It's  body was segmented, bony armor protecting it's feeble existence. However, all armors have a weakness, you just need to find a crack, and blunt things are usually effective. It also had  it's  dorsal fin atop it's head instead of  it's  back. Perhaps a sensory organ, or to grant increased agility for  it's  ambushes, or perhaps an evolutionary dead end. It doesn't matter. He also noted the little stubs along  it's  underside. Small, like those of a centipede, yet it doesn't seem to be able to walk with them. It was probably used to bury itself until the next thing comes along. Sneaky bastard. It doesn't matter'

Having been diving down, he went into the sharpest turn he could while retaining the momentum of the flail. He heard another thump, and Angel was moved back from the swing, yet he regained momentum seconds later, and whirled back again to face the threat, which was writhing in  it's  death throes in the place it though itself invincible: The sand. Jess let out a long, shaking breath. The whole ordeal lasted all of MAYBE fifteen  seconds  yet he felt exhausted.  _ Adrenaline crash, _  his brain supplied. He went out of the seamoth, and pulled out his scanner, and sent the searching rays over the thing's corpse. "A  Sandshark , huh? Damn. I... Fuck me..." He said. He had just murdered this thing, brutally fast. Maybe he was just feeling a bit too sympathetic, because he knows it wouldn't have hesitated if he was out here, but it doesn't have the capacity to think 

 He went out of the seamoth, and pulled out his scanner, and sent the searching rays over the thing's corpse. "A Sandshark, huh? Damn. I... Fuck me..." He said. He had just murdered this thing, brutally fast. Maybe he was just feeling a bit too sympathetic, because he knows it wouldn't have hesitated if he was out here, but it doesn't have the capacity to think higher than that, so it just feels like... he doesn't know. His brain was now in overdrive, and he was thinking of this too... nobly. "Guh... Fuckin' morals... Okay, okay, Land. Got it."   


He hopped back into Angel, and took a bite of a cured peeper, the normal and now-familiar taste of the alien fish accented by salt soothing his  nerves, and  took a swig of water. And he continued, going towards the marker on his swim mask. It was nearly a kilometer from where he was, yet he couldn't see anything, even on clear days. Maybe it was just over the horizon, or perhaps it was extremely low? He doesn't know. He went to go surface to see if he can find that island. Or, he would've, if it weren't for the fact that a loud bellow caused the very atoms of the water to shudder. The sound traveled inside his seamoth and it amplified inside, echoing off the metal and glass walls, ringing in his ears. Red lights and warning signs started screaming in his head. Everything about that roar implied "I'm big, strong, and possibly evil."

He turned the seamoth to see just what was there behind  him, but  saw nothing. Then, a shadow was cast over the seamoth. Jess slowly turned his head up to peer at whatever was about to destroy him, just like he did the  Sandshark . "Karma is a bitch, isn't she, Jess?" He muttered to himself. He saw what caused the shadow. It was huge,  absolutely massive . Easily a leviathan. Once, it was said the blue whale was the largest living animal, this thing was easily bigger. It had a wide, seemingly armored body that blocked out the sun, casting a huge shadow over everything under it. It had three long, strong  tentacle , thick as tree trunks, and about the same length, and it let out another deep, bellowing wail. It was reminiscent of a  whale, actually . And he was  absolutely sure  it was a form of echolocation. He KNOWS it saw him. Yet, it didn't do anything. It continued to drift on. Those alarms in his head died down, replaced with caution signs. Against his better judgement, he exited the seamoth and swam to it, circling it tentatively. If it wanted him dead, it didn't act on it. Just sat there, pushing itself through the water lazily. He swam closer, and looked over it. It seemed to have a little coral reef on it's back. There were coral formations, and even plants. There were small schools of fish swimming in, out, and around the reef, and seemed completely at home. 

Then, another bellow came up. Jess whipped around to see another one coming out of the gloom of the distant water, and a higher pitched bellow, and turned to see a smaller creature, a BABY. He let out a silent "Awww" at the obvious signs of just coming into the world recently. Its' small size, for one, the way it traveled around quicker than the others, but always came back after not even going very far, and the uncoordinated movement of it, how it would flail its tentacles quickly to try and propel itself, it was all around cute. So, obviously, Jess took a picture, one of the adults each, and a couple of the baby. And a few selfies for size comparison. He went to just sit on the creatures back, and pulled out his scanner, scanning the beast as he leaned back into a nice crevice in the shell backed by coral, and fish swam around him, inspecting the new creature near it's home warily. Of course, after a while, their fish brains decided he wasn't a threat, and began to swim around him as the thing was scanned. "Huh. You big boys need a name, don't you? Well, you have a nice little coral reef system... on your backs... Reefbacks!" Declared Jess.

Hey, it was an okay name! Like, on the scale of cool names, that would definitely at least get a 7/10 on the naming scale. Totally. He went out to  his Seamoth, he decided to surface to see if he could spot the island. He used the general speed of the seamoth and the fact that it can kinda sorta fly to get into a huge flying leap, and was met with the image of a monstrously tall fog wall, in a kind of dome. "Ho-ly shit..." he said in awe. As he drew closer, a gust of wind cleared out a patch of  the fog, revealing a window to a rocky, sandy beach topped by the undergrowth of a lush green alien jungle, topped by alien trees. 

"HOOOLYY SHIT!" He screamed in excitement. "LAND HO!" 


	10. If I Had A Credit For...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This island paradise is a lush, vivid jungle, but all is not as it seems...

After his initial surprise of the island coming out of the huge fog wall, he seemed to be entranced. Land. Actual land. If it wasn't for the feeling of the seamoth against him, he was sure he'd be dreaming. He went up to it, but saw no base. Maybe it was further than he thought? He glanced up, and saw absolute nothing, save for the sight of a rock falling through the water towards his seamoth! Letting out a curse in surprise, he avoided the boulder. He looked up to see the rock's origin, to find the vast expanse of the underside of the island,  _floating._ He was mesmerized at the sight, and soon found out why. Giant pink blobs seemed to keep the island afloat. They had a translucent outer membrane, with long tentacles that curled and wrapped around the stalactites underneath the island, effectively anchoring themselves to it. He'd have to scan them, but later. Right now all he wants is to be able to walk with room for his head. He went back, pulling up to the shoreline, and letting Angel have a well-deserved break in the shallows as he dragged his cargo net ashore, using it to keep Angel from being washed off with the tide. He looked around at his surroundings. The rocky, sandy shore was bordered by a steep cliff. He can climb it probably, but it would be wise to find a path up if possible. And, with a small walk along the beach, he found his ticket up. A thing, winding path up through the rocks, weathered by ancient waters eroding it away, now days long gone. Perfect for him, though. He checked himself for the equipment he carried. Scanner? On his right hip, holstered almost like a gun. Knife? On a small knife sheath on the belt on the front of his right hip. Easily accessible, and with Jess, he can pull it out in a second. Habitat builder? Stored safely in a small pouch on the back of his belt. Flashlight? On the side of his bag, able to be accessed with a simple reach back. And that's about it. He was bare-bones on the whole equipment side of things.

Barring his severe lack of tools to make his existence a bit more bearable, he went up through the path, and emerged into a jungle. Alien trees and ferns and bushes grew abundantly. He  Scanned as much as he could, letting Maya do a lot of the work for the names. She came up with a few good ones, like for the little bunches of hot pink flowers with sharply angled petals was named a Voxel shrub. The small purple things with a honeycomb like cage on the outside were designated as a Speckled Rattler, due to how it's seeds and spores were inside, and loose, as Jess could just pick a couple up and start using them as maracas. It was pretty fun. So, speckled rattler in one hand, scanner in the other, he went to scan more things, shaking up a nice beat as he did so. As he scanned what Maya deemed a Bulbo Tree, it hit him. How long has it been since he had heard MUSIC? That thought hit him  hard. So, determined to make up for it, he began to shake out a song he was making up on the spot. No words, not now, but a nice little shaky beat.

It was rather relaxing, the island. As far as he could tell, nothing had evolved legs in this area, or at least, anything predatory. He did notice, however, that there were birds. "Alien seagulls, huh? I need a name for you boys up there. Why don't one of you come down to lemme scan ya?" He called out to the birds. He didn't expect them to listen, but, one did, landing right next to Jess on a branch and tilting it's head at him, curious. "Oh, of course you have next to no natural predators, you fly. It's the Dodo all over again..." He sighed. He held out his Speckled Rattler to it, and the bird, which unsurprisingly looked like a ray that evolved to fly, took it from him readily, breaking open the rattler and tipping it over to spill out the seeds, which it ate contentedly. "Seed eater, I see. Well, you ready for some spectroscopic analysis, bud?" He pulled out the scanned and pulled the trigger, the rays of light cascading over the bird worried it at first, but Jess nudged it comfortably with his hand back to the seeds as it came to terms with the facts that it wasn't harmful. After it was done, Jess, looked over it. "Well, call me Captain obvious, but I'll just call you a Skyray. How's that sound?" The bird looked at Jess and seemed to sense he was trying to communicate, and chirped in kind. Jess chuckled at that, and extended his finger to the bird once it finished it's meal, and it climbed on. He then placed it on his shoulder, and continued on with his new pet of sorts. "You're gonna need a name... And no, not like, Skyray, an actual name. Hmm..." Jess deliberated a bit, before giving up. "Ahh... I'll give you one later, how bout that?" The bird chirped a few times before something caught it's eye and it flew off, much to Jess' dismay. "Well, aight. Just uh, see ya later then?" Jess said, before sighing and continuing his journey. He scanned a few more things, including a Jaffa cup, which was essentially a lazy Venus fly-trap. He's sure there was another plant on earth that did almost the exact same thing, he just couldn't remember.

Anyway, so the Jaffa cup has a large frame, almost like one of those bird fountains, and about the same height as well, bright yellow with a few shades of orange, and it has all this sweet-smelling sludge at the bottom, which is chock full of nutrients, and what happens is that the aroma lures bugs out towards it, and they go inside. Whatever goes in doesn't usually get out again, either immediately stuck in the sludge for flying insects, or unable to climb the slick inner petals out and eventually falling into the sludge for more land-based insects. The protein and nutrients was from all the bugs, and the sludge was it's digestive system. Oh how deceiving nature can be with it's beauty. And up next was the Ming plant, which essentially has it's own natural vase, which catches water and protects if from predators, and as it grows, the "Vase" sometimes breaks, but the plant fixes it'self, thus having characteristic cracks and lines in the vase to tell it apart. And the Bulbo tree. This was a tree, obviously, about a foot taller than Jess on average, with a thick, bulbous part at the bottom, which was the beginning of the root system, and it had holes in it. According to the spectroscopic analysis, the substance flowing out of the holes was an insect poison, but harmless to pretty much anything else, considering it's only other predator was Skyrays, but all they did was eat the seeds and spread them. And apparently, it was high in water content. Jess tested this by taking a sample of the plant, and it practically OOZED water right into his palm. He took a bite after inspecting it. The bug poison, which was quite sweet honestly, gave a boost to the flavor, and it had a healthy kind of crunch to it. Honestly, it tasted like an apple, just one with a lot of juice. He finished it quickly after that, and gave himself another slice of it just to satisfy him, before he plucked another Speckled Rattler and began to shake it up a bit once more, even whistling a tune as he did so. he gave the place a look, around, noting the two mountains on either end of the island, and the odd rock formation above them. "Wait a second... That... Is that a  _habitat_ ?" He said to himself. He looked closer. It certainly seemed to be so. With a couple of basic compartments and an observatory, even. But something seemed off about it. Jess couldn't place it, but he felt something was off about it. The color? maybe. He couldn't tell right now. However, he did know that he started hauling his ass over to the mountain, climbing the old trail up there. He stopped when he saw a box holding the remnants of an unfamiliar tool. A stasis rifle. Real high-tech, even for this age. However, they weren't being m manufactured anymore. It stopped about... a decade ago? Unless they had picked it back up due to popular demand. He kept going after scanning the tool fragment, and called out before he reached the habitat.

"Hello? Is anybody there? Hello!" He called out. his voice echoed a bit from atop the mountain. But once he got up there, he found that he had wasted his breath. No wonder he thought the color was off, the habitat was caked in layer upon layer of rust, the once pristine white of the painted titanium was now eroded, leaving a sad, dull, rusted hunk of metal. "Scans indicate that this structure has accumulated enough rust to be sufficient for a decade of wear. Please remember to keep your habitat in good shape in order to maintain maximum hull integrity." Yes of course, that's the real concern, hull integrity. Not how there was a decade old habitat here on an uncharted planet. He has just opened a smaller Pandora's box inside the larger one. he went up to it. Since it wasn't underwater, a hatch wasn't necessary, so they had used a bulkhead to make a door. Jess pulled on the locking mechanism, noting how the orange paint on the handle crumbled at his touch as he twisted it open, the metal screeching, having sat unmoved for so long. And if he thought that screech was bad, he had a surprise when he opened the door, the hinges squeaking loudly, Opening slow was a no-go, so he threw it open to get it over with and the metal screamed in protest, the loud sound only present for but a second, but it made that second last. Jess shook his head, chasing out the sound from his head and forcing his ears to stop ringing. He went inside, and found the inside to be rusty as well. It stank to high heaven, the smell of mildew and rust and rotting plant matter, and rodent dung, or whatever it was, so much so that he had to step out and put on his swim mask, and used that to basically be a gas mask. He breathed in he oxygen from his tank, feeling refreshed, before stepping inside again. He looked around. There wasn't much, But he scanned what he could, including an indoor growbed for plants, and a marblemelon that was in it, and the observatory, the desk inside it, all that. Speaking of the desk, he found an abandoned PDA. He looked at it. Nearly dead, with only old solar tech keeping it up and running, and activated it with his, transferring the data. What he got back was a audio file. "Degasi voice log #1: Habitat location."

Jess was now intrigued. so, walking outside, he hit play.

And Maya provided him with some context, such as names, but not much else.

EVE: "This island is a godsend! Look out the window. No predators... Fresh food..." Said the first voice, obviously female, and a bit older that a young adult. Possibly middle-aged, around thirty to forty. They sounded absolutely content. That is, until another voice continues their sentence.

KACE: "No building materials, Nothing left of the ship, and your kid says we're gonna STARVE to death without more growbeds. Speak up, kid." Said the second. Male, tough, rough, and dripping with sarcasm at the first bit. He sounded like he knew what he was doing, though.

LUCIA: "It's true, Eve. The natural growth rates are too slow to support us." Says the next voice, obviously a young adult, or maybe even a teen. Sounds like she's Eve's daughter.

KACE: "All I'm sayin' is, ocean's got us surrounded. No use hiding, sooner or later we're gonna have to get our feet wet." This Kace guy sound pretty sensible, if a bit headstrong. But at the very least, he's real about their situation.

EVE: "The rest of your life may have been a fight, Kace, but I've made my decision. You want to forfeit your emergency pay to take a swim? Go ahead." Said Eve, rather angrily. Apparently unable to accept that their shining beacon of hope wasn't as good as they thought.

KACE: "Believe me, I'm thinking on it..." Kace growled, effectively ending the conversation. 

 

Jess sat there, shell-shocked. The fact that these people having crashed here is proof enough. Any of the smaller possibilities he didn't believe in in the first place are now gone. Absolutely. Vaporized. Someone or something wants nothing getting in or out of this planet. He's effectively trapped. 

But, pushing that thought away, he looked around for anything else. From his perch on the mountain, he had a good layout of the island. There was another broken habitat on top of the other mountain, and he spotted something in the center. Much bigger than these observatories. It had a large bunch of things around it, growbeds, and from Jess could see, a couple of broken spotlights. And, you know, a multi-purpose room. Totally not what he needs though. No. And no, before you ask, he is NOT, i repeat, N O T jumping up and down in excitement of having an actual chance of having a home. 

He looked at the mountain in the way between him and the big boy rooms, and decided there was only one way down. He perched himself over the steep incline, a bunch of smooth, if bumpy, rock formations, worn from who knows how many years of rain. All of it covered in a light coat of sand, dirt and other... loose particles, smooth pebbles and such. It was just all too perfect. So, letting go, he slid down the mountain on his ass, feet ahead of him in case he needs to brake, and hands behind him to steady himself. And with that, he slid down the mountain. 

"If i had a credit for every time i found a mysterious, unreported, undocumented crash on an alien planet..." He said as he went off to the base.


	11. I'll Play This Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have realized my mistake of not making a joke chapter on April 1'st. Please accept my humblest apologies and spare my meager existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo, this might be one of the longest chapters yet! I kept revising it because I wasn't happy with some elements here and there and came across this leviathan. Enjoy!

Jess slid down the mountain, like some kind of fucking idiot. On paper it seemed like a good idea, but... Not so much in practice. He isn't dead, no, but now his ass hurts, his heels hurt, his spine is aching from the bumps, and he's covered in dirt with the tiniest avalanche possible following him. As he landed in a worn out heap at the bottom of the mountain, a small cascade of tiny pebbles, dirt, sand, and whatever else he had moved cascaded onto him in a cloud of dust. Coughing and sputtering, he stood up and stumbled out of the settling cloud. He ruffled his own hair, shaking out the dirt from it, and feeling just how unbelievably fucked his hair was. It wasn't damp at this point, but it was all clumped and matted together at this point, and felt kind of gritty in the larger knots and clumps, and it was also a bit longer than he remembered. His hair was probably logged down with salt and drifting sands. He ran his hands through his hair, feeling it become a slight bit better. He then shook his head, causing whatever he raked out to fall around him. 

Now that his whole little grooming procedure was finished, he continued on, and had to go down another hill, right next to a huge barren part of the alien earth that looked like it had fallen down the hill, landing in a huge heap at the bottom. Luckily, this one was just grass, so he carefully slid down, hopping up at the bottom of the slope. What he saw was not entirely good. He pulled out his flashlight in his left hand, holding his survival knife upside down in his right hand and propped his left arm on his right, like how a cop would with his gun and flashlight. Except, you know, it is a knife and a flashlight instead. He shined the beam through a broken window, seeing other broken windows in the back, dirt spilling through more broken windows. This place is half buried. Jess is surprised t's not completely buried or crushed. He peered through the broken glass. There was nothing, but an eerie silence, maybe. He kicked out the remaining shards of glass left in the bottom of the window before moving inside. He looked to his left, only to see an odd thing in the floor, and another PDA. He went over, looking over these new things. The PDA glowed it's bright blue, but the weird thing he bent down to pick up... It glowed a strange purple, with some of the most odd structuring he'd ever seen. As an engineer, it irked him, but a few quick taps of it told him that this thing was extremely strong. And when he held it, it hummed with residual energy, vibrating softly with it's own power. He pulled out his scanner and, obviously, scanned it, and he got a new blueprint. 

As he went to put it away, he heard an aggressive sounding series of clicks, and turned to see some weird crab thing with four legs and a huge blue eye dominating the top of it's body crawling towards him with surprising speed, before it leaped unbelievably high up, revealing a small circle of small sharp teeth. Jess tried to smack it out of the air, but missed, as the thing landed on his shoulder, it's now very much so menacing mouth mere centimeters from his face as he tried to push it beck, but it's legs had latched onto his shoulder. So, unable to reach his knife because his right hand was quite busy at the moment, he opted for the next best thing: The tablet. He reached for it with his left hand, and grabbed it by the weird angled protrusion it had on two sides, slamming it against the creature, who let go and shrieked in pain. Jess stood up quickly, pulling out his knife. The thing scuttled up quickly, letting out some more clicks, before jumping again. But instead of directly at him like Jess had thought, it jumped into the wall, and used that to launch at him like a bullet. Jess, in turn, pulled off what very well could be the first game of alien crab baseball as he swung the tablet at it, and sent the thing beck into the wall with a disgusting crunch. He rushed over and stabbed it in the big eye, just in case. You can never be sure. "That bastard just got re-atomized!" Jess yelled in victory.

After that surprisingly hard fight with a crab, of all things, he scanned it's corpse, and after reading that it most likely stalked caves and other such places to scavenge or hunt, he named it a "Cave Crawler." You can never go wrong with alliteration. Definitely. 110% of the time. Anyway, he put away the tablet, and transferred the PDA's data to Maya, and played the message. It was labeled  "Degasi Voice Log #2: Storm!"

And it would seem Kace, Eve, And Lucia were back. This time, the noise in the background sounded like extremely heavy rain. Which, to be honest, isn't surprising, considering this is an ocean planet. Storms are probably happening in a million other places right now. 

 

EVE: "Lucia, I said wait for the storm to pass! Your life's more valuable to me than a plant patch." Said Eve, with obvious motherly concern in her voice.

LUCIA: "You stopped being in charge when the ship you were captaining sank!" Lucia yelled back at her, with a fair bit of spite in that voice of hers.

EVE: "I'll stop being in charge when you take charge of yourself!"

KACE: "Say, chief. Chief!"

EVE: "WHAT!?"

KACE: "Do you know how to drain those growbeds of 40 tons of storm water? OR how to conjure food from the air?" 

EVE: "I know how to  _prioritize._ " Said Eve, with a hint of indignation.

KACE: "I'm just sayin', what's your girl's life to you if tomorrow you're gonna be so  _hungry_ you start wondering what he  _tastes_ like. Let her go deal with the plants."

Eve let out an annoyed sigh. 

EVE: "Lucia, go deal with the plants..."

There was the familiar sound of a bulkhead, but instead of it being rusty like it was now it sounded pristine. A robotic voice, which he remembered being and old version of the AI used, not by Alterra, but by the Mongolians. Another trans-gov that was usually in hot competition with Alterra, but because they actually care for their employees they usually fall short. Meanwhile, Alterra is based off of a, honestly pretty reasonable, motto of "Get what you deserve." Basically, the more you do, and the better you do, he better off you are. It really helps weed out slackers. But instead of the almost British voice of Maya and other modern Alterra PDAs, this one had an Asian accent to it. 

[Lucia Venefica has disembarked the habitat.]

EVE: Interfere with my family again, and when rescue come I will LEAVE you here. Do you understand me?" Eve's voice was laced with an undeniable amount of rage and annoyance.

KACE: "No rescue coming, chief. And no stayin' here either. This rain keeps falling, sooner or later this place'll be buried. Only choice we got is weather to be buried with it." 

Again, Kace seemed to be the one who ends these arguments. The recording ended, and Jess got to work. He scanned the multi-purpose room, finally getting the blueprint for one, as well as a wall planter, and a few other things. Now, his target was all the way across the island on top of ANOTHER mountain. "Guh... Why do they have to make me walk all the way up another mountain...?" He groaned as he walked over. After another grueling climb up, and throwing a cave crawler straight off a mountain cliff, he found a few more crates with stasis rifle bits, he reached the top, and went inside to see what else was there. He wasn't let down, and was greeted by another observatory, but this time, it was full of plants. There was a few plant pots, which Jess scanned, and a indoor growbed, full of alien plants. There was a Bulbo tree, a weird tree that looked all gnarled and twisted that held fruit that was oval shaped, and like most things on this planet, glowing. There was also a odd looking tree, with a thick base, and it's leaves looked like the ferns on... Earth? He scanned it, and the information Maya so kindly displayed to him showed that, no, it wasn't native. It had some similar DNA, but that was most likely due to the close proximity with other alien plants. He took a few samples and seeds and such, pocketing them, before walking back out, but grabbing another glowing PDA and transferring the data, picking up another voice log. This one read "Degasi voice log #3: Aftermath" He hit play as he made his way down the mountain like a normal person.

KACE: "You see, Chief? You brought us to this sodden planet. Told us we'd see a lush payday. Now what do we got, some 6 weeks later? A dead crew. A habitat that's half buried. Food washed away."

EVE: "I suppose the executive decisions would be better left to someone with your  _extensive experience of hitting people in the face_ ?" Eve snapped back.

KACE: "I know enough not to take unscheduled expeditions on uncharted planets. That's something you don't wanna learn the hard way." Kace retorted coolly

EVE: "Easier to judge my decisions  _in hindsight_. Harder to come up with a plan of your own."

KACE: "As a matter of fact, I got one already. We take what we can carry and hunker down in a cave somewhere. I scouted a site. Couple hundred meters deep, lots of metal deposits."

Eve then spoke with a hint of curiosity.

EVE: "How do you imagine we'd live?"

KACE: "With ready access to building materials? Like damn  _Queens._ Couple of water filters, a bioreactor, fresh fish... But chief, we'll eat seaweed salad and drink our own piss if that's what it takes. All that matters is: Do  _you_ have something better?"

EVE: "Send the co-ordinates to my PDA. I'll  _review_ your  _proposal_." 

 

He recorded himself for his audio log, and left it where he was to be like these people. If he doesn't make it, he'll at least be able to hopefully guide people who get shipwrecked here on this planet again. He hopes no one ever has to do that, and more that maybe they'll archive it or something. Once he gets off this planet or something. Who knows.

 

"New data acquired. Displaying location on your HUD." Maya said, and Jess turned to see a map marker that was among the waves. It was about half a kilometer out. Around the grassy plateau, if he remembers correctly, and a few hundred meters below sea level. He sighed. "Now I'm on the hunt for another sad, sorry bunch of people who probably died a decade ago on this planet. As well as finding what the fuck happened to the Aurora. Greaat... What god decided I'd be the chosen one? And all by myself, to boot. This just gets better by the minute doesn't it?" He grumbled. Whoa, okay, land is bad, it gives him depressing thoughts. He needs movement. He needs the water to drown out his thoughts. He needs something. 

_No use running from your mind, fuck head. I'm here to stay!_

"No, nope, unless you pay the mental rent you can fuck off, only room in there for one conscious, bud!"

_Stop it with the useless mind-bantering. You're gonna die here, just like those three idiots. I guarantee it._  

"Nah."

_What do you mean "nah"!? I'm your mind. You can't deny me or my presence._

"I mean NO! FUCK OFF!" 

And with that, Jess jumped off a rock bridge he only vaguely remembers running to, plummeting into the seemingly bottomless sea, relishing in the feeling of the water making everything sound mute, filling his ears with a comforting muffle. He swam through , until he came to a hidden beach in the middle. HE pushed himself up there until he got his oxygen back, going into the water once again, and swimming to Angel. He got in, and went to the plateau. "Gotta clear my head. Focus, Jess, focus. You got a mission. You ARE the chosen one! And I'll be damned if I don't try!" He set Angel to maximum thrust, going back and leaving the island. He'll come back, one day. Just not today. HE devoured a Cured Peeper, and downed a water bottle, and sped his way over to the grassy plateau.

Once there, he cheered at the sight of the Reefback pod. "REEFIES! Hey buddies!" He called out. They're just big alien whales. And , if it weren't for their imposing size, Jess would be fawning over them like a pet. He's sure of it.He went down, heading to the marker, and stopping. There was a hole in the sands, leading down to a dark cave. It had a strange purple glow emanating from it, but it was't super bright, but there was, obviously, some kind of bio-luminescent creature. He turned on his headlights before going down into the depths, swerving in there quickly to avoid more Sandshark fights. He entered into an entirely different biome, alien even for this place, or so Jess thought. There were huge underwater mushrooms, with strong, almost rock-like bases with very thin and fragile mushroom part. He doesn't know the actual term. But it was like a bubble. Or, a balloon would be a better description. And they glowed a strong purple, enough even to light this underground cavern. The entrance he came in did a bit on winding down, and ended in a wall of stalagmites with enough room to go through the largest ones with the seamoth. Jess cut off his makeshift trailer just in case. He turned off his light and drove through. 

Coincidentally, a certain few people emerged from the creepvine forest, with a few seaglides. "Whoa! Daniel, you see that?" Riley said. He was sure he saw something just go into the sand. He swore it. Daniel, who was stretching out his pained back in the water, letting out a sickening series of cracks and pops, shook his head. "In case you haven't noticed _compadre_  , I was busy checking out the sand grains when I'm trying to catch my breath..." "Oh, yeah yeah yeah, I'm sorry-" "Can it, Riley. I'm good, alright? Let's go see what you saw." They zoomed over there, and were greeted by a hole in the sand, leading to a black, all consuming maw of the earth itself. "NOPE." Daniel heard Riley say, before he turned to see Riley zooming away from the cave with all the speed he could muster with the seaglide. Daniel chuckled, but followed. Honestly, he didn't plan on going in there any time soon. They continued onwards to this proposed landmass. Once they were there, they did the whole "Oh wow land" song and dance as Jess, but without the mental arguing and more physical arguing. They went up, checking the island. 

"Hold up here." Daniel called, holding up his arm. He knelt down to a Bulbo tree, which Riley had scanned earlier, and were named by, GUESS WHO? Jess. How far ahead was he? Probably out braving the deepest depths. The man was a chief engineer. He definitely had a cyclops or more at this point, and a better base than that small one they found. Daniel had knelled down, though, because there was something wrong with this tree. "Chunks taken out of it... Not by insects, this thing poisons them... There, and there... Too clean to be a bite from a creature... Hmph." He stood up. "Jess was here. See how the root system is damaged? He sliced off samples. And I think he did that on that one too. Must be some good eating." Daniel then bent down and cut out a nice bite, and before Riley could potentially warn him of the THOUSANDS of possible negative effects this tree might give him, regardless of if it was safe for consumption, because alien bacteria, Daniel took a bite. Riley, always having the worst scenario playing out in his mind, waited anxiously. Daniel had a blank expression as he chewed slowly and swallowed. Then he took another bite. Then another. Until the whole sample was gone. "So, uhh... How was it?" "Honestly? Kind of like an apple if it had a bit more crunch." "Huh... You don't feel sick?" "Nah. I actually feel a bit better, I was getting thirsty and this thing has a ton of juice." "Okay... Just, don't go eating everything? Please?" Daniel let out a short, barking laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be sure to eat everything." "Daniel!" "Okay, Okay! I'll stop. But this looks... Semi-recent. Maybe he's still here? I would probably stay here. Nice and safe on actual land, I'd stay for a bit." Riley let out a hum. "Okay... But let's not linger for too long. If this is recent, we're hot on his trail."

So, they found the habitats, and the dead cave crawler. And all that. But the thing that got them was that there was nothing here. Until they came across a rock bridge, which among the algae an dust, was a shiny data card. They picked it up, and to their surprise, they got not just one, but four voice logs. Three from the degassi, and one from Jess. 

"Jess's log, #3. I don't know how, but there's land here. This world never ceases to disappoint. I have learned of another ship that crashed here about a decade ago, The Degassi. Old Mongolian vessel. If my memory serves me correct, I remember seeing some sob story on the news about 10 years ago. I was, what, 12? 13? Anyway, The Mongolians released a story about the Degassi and how hey were attacked by space pirates, the vessel was destroyed, the crew killed. Yeah, it was a load of horse shit. They crashed here. Just like the Aurora. They got shot down, killed, and three of them survived. Apparently, a Ms. Venefica and her daughter, as well as a mercenary of sorts. I remember seeing stuff about the Veneficas, some big shot company with stocks and trades and all that, real big, important family. And from what I remember, Eve and her Daughter Lucia were extremely efficient, both of them expanding the family business more than anyone before them. The crash seemed to be Eve's fault, who wanted to explore here to exploit the planet despite that not being in the contracts of the crew, because rich people, and they got shot out of the sky. Eve didn't seem to take the crash too well. Her renowned calm, playful, humorous disposition going up in flames as she descends into near-hysterics. Surprisingly, the Merc, Kace, was extremely calm in the situation. He had apparently gone though this whole song an dance before. And Lucia seems to be extremely intelligent, and a farmer of sorts, until a huge storm buried half their habitat and washed out all the food. Kace decided to move, and they had gone to some caves. Dunno. Might check it out later. Anyway, so, I bet that whoever is still alive to listen are just on the edge of their seat to hear how Jess Sergio is doing? Terribly. I think I've devolved into schizophrenics, and I've had more arguments with myself than I care to count, much less mention.  Wren, or anyone really, hasn't called in days. I've resorted to naming everything of mine. PDA? Maya. Seamoth? Angel. Seems stupid, I know, but I heard that anthropomorphizing something works. And I gotta admit, it works pretty well. Not well enough, mind you, but my point remains. I need a pet or something, anything, that is actually alive and able to realize it's my friend. I had a skyray for a bit, but they flew off. Maybe another day. And also, despite my sickness and generally bad situation, every cloud has a silver lining. My body is probably the most fit I'll ever be, and I have an UNBELIEVABLE tan. So, not all bad. I just hope I can maintain it. 

And if that isn't enough, I found a legendary piece of evidence. Any small trickle of doubt that aliens aren't here has vanished. I found an alien artifact. This thing is made of an alloy with some of the toughest material I've ever seen. Alien tech, alien materials, it is all just... So much. I feel like I've been cast into a story, as some kind of twisted, cosmic joke played at me by some flaky god who decided I'm the protagonist. Yeah, sure. I'll play this game. For now. " 


	12. Shrooms 'n Snakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry for my lack of updates as of late. But, fear not dear readers, all 3 of you. I live. It's just that I've been extremely busy as of late. But yes, I'll try to update more and more. No guarantees, though. Enjoy. I'll hopefully not be super busy later.

Daniel and Riley were wandering around, and had unknowingly passed up Jess. because fate hates friends, right? 

 

Well,while Riley and Daniel chickened out, Jess wished he had too. This place was a nightmare. It looked nice, once you got over the darkness. The Jellyshrooms were a nice mood lighting, and he didn't have to waste energy for the headlights. But if only he knew of the dangers of this place. He piloted Angel into the cave expertly, using his forward momentum and velocity to his advantage. Most Seamoth pilots jerk the thing around, but if you go in some slower, banking turns, you don't lose speed and, paradoxically, it's almost easier to control at high speeds than low. Because when you stop, there's still the movement of a big metal one-man submersible. So, he banked himself down into the caves, avoiding the imposingly large stalactites and stalagmites that came up like caltrops. He weaved through to find a huge cavern lit up with a bio-luminescent purple glow. it was both relaxing and worrying. But these Jellyshrooms were much, much bigger than any of the little ones he had seen near the entrance of the caves. These ones were larger than a multi-purpose habitat room, with thing membranes swaying and bobbing as whatever glowing purple bounty lies within for whatever herbivore comes by. And that also worried Jess. It was so thinly protected that it barely even counts as protection. So, why were they able to grow so large? There has to be some kind of defense mechanism, but a scan showed nothing. Except the fact that the center of it down into it's trunk-like base was hollow. Maybe it provided shelter for the smaller life forms and in turn they didn't eat it? Co-evolution, he assumes.  However, in order to prove his hypothesis, he'd have to check the hollow itself. So, he swam up there with his flashlight. The hollow was hardly illuminated, since the glow was mainly centered below the entrance, and this particular Jellyshroom was higher than the others, meaning no higher light could be shining in there. The only possible light was the light reflected off the walls, which wasn't much considering that these walls were made of shale or something or other, and either way it was dark, and not very reflective. Because light.

He shined his flashlight inside, expecting to see a cute little colony of fish, maybe even alien Isopods, but he got a big old light beam full of something that resembled crab legs. But thicker than the cave crawler. And it wasn't moving. "A crab? Huh. I gotta say, not what I was expecting- AHHH!!" At that moment, the crab rudely decided to lunge at him, but as Jess fought off the angry crab, it seemed to have much more power than initially thought. It's at that moment that a particularly hard push on the crab's part pushed them both out and away from the Jellyshroom, and it was here that Jess realized that it was not a crab at all, but more like a snake or an eel. Jess caught glimpses of a long, long tail that was flicking behind it. Jess currently was engaged in a massive struggle with this Crabsnake. It it weren't for the fact that he had arms, he would be dead. It was a very effective predator, but with his arms, he was able to hold the hook-shaped mandibles that protruded like huge fangs, and tore cuts into his chest and arms. But it didn't stab him, which was good. He pushed himself away from the fangs as far as he could, and did what he could, kicking the massive serpent's body and head. Eventually, with a growl, it pulled away and returned to another Jellyshroom that it had pushed Jess near, deciding he was too much trouble than he was worth. 

Jess resisted the urge to spit in the snake's direction because of his mask and just decided to shout at it. "That's right, fuck you! Hope you starve!" He sung his arm through the water, and instantly felt the pain stinging in his chest. He pressed his hand over the cuts and scrapes and bruises that peppered his body from the attack. Giving the entire cave two fully fledged middle fingers, he swam back to Angel to lick his wounds. "Welcome aboard, Captain." Angel said automatically when he got in through the hatch. He took off the dive mask, feeling his chest tighten uncomfortable with held back coughs. The second he took of the mask and breathed in, his body couldn't hold it any more, releasing a coughing fit that shook his whole body violently. He wiped the blood dribbling down his lips off on his wet sleeve, and swished around a mouthful of water to get the tangy, bitter, metallic taste of his own blood out of his mouth, spitting it out. The clear water was tinged a opaque deep red. After taking a handful of antibiotic capsules from the medkit, he began to patch himself up. He didn't need any stitches this time, thankfully, just bandages and a bit of disinfectant. He looked on at his own body in grotesque wonder. His torso, once semi-toned and mostly free of scars, was now what looked like a soldier's body. All lean, toned, and muscled, with a six pack chiseled into his now rock-hard abdomen. And once he saw this, he looked over the rest of his body. Lifting his damaged, wet sleeves, he saw that his arms were also considerably more muscular, with it's own array of scars and bruises. His hands were now calloused and underneath the tightness of his strong fingers, his skin was somewhat pruned. His pals were bruised at the moment, due to his brawl with a Crabsnake, and he could already feel the blisters coming. At least it'll be calloused so that at least next time it won't be as bad. His legs were actually more muscular than most of his body, because of swimming. 

But, snapping himself out of his narcissism, he continued to patch up what he could. Otherwise, painkillers will tide him over. After that, he mended his dive suit with the repair tool, careful not to burn himself, and piloted Angel over to the beacon left by the nice Degasi crew, who definitely chose a wonderful place to settle down. Perfect. No threats whatsoever.  There was a habitat foundation by itself, with a few boxes and what looked like floodlights, and a PDA. He got out of angel, and went over to the PDA. It wasn't a voice log, but more like a proposed habitat location. Another marker popped up in the cave. Jess scanned the floodlights, and tried to get something inside the crates, but it wouldn't budge. He sighed, bubbles rising behind him as air went out to the freedom of the atmosphere. Live long and prosper, carbon dioxide. He looked around for anything else before getting Angel to go where he needs to, while avoiding the Jellyshrooms as much as possible to avoid getting his Seamoth torn to shreds by Crabsnakes.

What he found was pretty surprising. This base was much bigger than the other Degasi habitats on the island, probably because of the metal that Kace had talked about. He went closer, noting how there was a huge chunk missing from the wall, and how fragments were scattered all over the rocks around the habitat. He immediately set off to go scan all these things. He scanned battery chargers, bioreactors, and the stasis rifle, now all complete. He'd need to get more stuff to make them, but he thinks it'll go easy. Then there was the actual place. He was swimming inside, when he stopped. There was a few glowing purple plants drooping from the ceiling. He pulled out his scanner, which Maya named a "Drooping Stinger." It apparently generates electricity and east things to make up for it's lack of photosynthesis. So, he essentially half-swam half-crawled underneath them until he was in the main room. However, his visit was about to be cut short. After picking up some more fragments that were laying around, and had his eyes on two things. One, a PDA, most likely containing some kind of hint of the Degassi, and a alien tablet. However, this one glowed a burning orange. He scanned the tablet but once he had grabbed it, he heard (And felt) metal hitting metal, the impact sending shockwaves under the water, and the sound reverberated like a drum. He looked out to see Angel, headlights shining through the now cracked quartz glass window, before his precious baby was sent tumbling away. He quickly looked out to look over not one, but TWO crabsnakes assaulting Angel, despite the fact she wasn't alive, the Crabsnakes didn't like this new, very bright, very hard visitor into their precious territory.

"Fuck! Angel!" He quickly went under the stingers, almost slithering like a snake around hem to get through quickly. he tried to not wince about how that was probably a bad idea, but he couldn't care less. He emerged from the wrecked habitat, pulling out his flashlight, and turned it on. And off. And on. And off again. The Crabsnakes clearly didn't like that, almost retreating away from the sudden new bright lights before they both saw it was some tiny animal. Nothing to worry about, and a rather filling looking meal. 

Jess knew that he was metaphorically grabbing the bull by it's horns here, basically taunting the animals to attack. One of them did, letting their companion keep going at Angel, possibly to let it feast on the unappetizing metal while it focused on its new prey. Jess threw the flashlight aside, pulling out his repair tool. He swam at the snake, knife in one hand, repair tool in the other, and prepared to slash and burn this fucker and his buddy for messing up his best accomplishment on this planet, aside from making it this far of course. But angel was real. Tangible. Useful. A sense of accomplishment can't let him go to 200m below without a problem, and it didn't give him a safe way of moving without wanting to die afterwards. And no, he's definitely not still complaining about having to swim everywhere up til this point. Definitely. The very notion is absurd and he refuses to entertain the idea any further.

The snake was deterred, but very quickly went back to charging at Jess. Obviously it had expected him to run, not charge it. Perfect. It knew nothing of having to fight. As the snake lunged, Jess dodged to the side, and angled the knife towards him somewhat, holding it upside down. He thrust it down and towards him, embedding the blade into the cracks into the exoskeleton plates, the way the blade was angled effectively making it a hook. He griped on tight, using his legs to wrap around the body as he pulled the trigger of the repair tool, the blue-hot fire that boiled the water around it withing a millisecond of pulling the trigger, leaving burns over the plates, on the soft underside, on it's unarmored, ugly fucking face and mouth before it began to squirm. And not just struggle, at this point, it knew there wasn't a chance of escape. Jess relished in the feeling, having such a powerful being's life in your tiny little gremlin hands. He began to wiggle the knife, pulling it out slightly, before plunging it back in, and began to saw across it's back, plunging in the repair tool with abandon, the thrashing making him miss his target and go right back to it, leaving nasty, charred chitin around a jagged, bleeding, partially cauterized gash across the things' back.

He pulled his knife free, and unlocked his legs from the now terrified beast as it thrashed away, spraying a sickly yellow looking alien blood that vaguely reminded him of bug guts, and the other one seemed to have gotten the message, swimming away with its' back intact, sadly. He went ad got his flashlight, before swimming over to angel. "Aww, poor baby... I'll fix ya up!" He exchanged the low battery inside the repair tool, and set to work, changing it from full on weld to the slightly more battery-consuming dual function it served, where it re-atomizes things back to working order. Oh, how he loved technology. He gingerly set about, letting the repair tool glide over the tears in titanium and wiring, melding them back together, and fixing the spider-webbing cracks on the glass semi-dome that acts as the windshield. After that, he got inside, went over to his stash, re-attached it, and began to head back to his home, with all these new blueprints. He wasn't sure if he would ever tell anyone, but he was laughing, almost maniacally on his way back. He felt powerful.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I think this may be one of the shorter chapters. but hooray, I'm not dead, right? Reason for celebration, I think.


	13. Author's note

Okay, so uh...  
You're probably wondering why this story hasn't updated recently. That's not because writer's block, just some technical difficulties. This story is not being abandoned, fuck no. It's just put on temporary hold whilst I figure everything out.

HOWEVER!

I promise when I come back I will gift you all with extrodinary chapters. Don't give up on me!

Anyway, while you wait, enjoy yourselves. Treat yourself. And I'll hopefully see you all soon.


	14. Guess Who's Back?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yo, contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead. But now I gotta get back into the swing of things. Enjoy, maybe? Also, I just kinda feel my chapters just keep getting shorter and shorter, so I'm gonna attempt to remedy that, even if just for me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that I had lost this chapter when my computer decided to give up the ghost, so to speak, so if it looks rushed, it might just be. I'll try to recall the chapter that we lost oh so long ago to the best of my ability. Apologies.

Routine was both a blessing and a curse. That's something Wren realized VERY quickly during her career. It keeps you sane, offers you solace from the unpredictability of life, and allows you to fall into the mindless haze of repetition. But that's also the curse. The repeating. The ease of it all, allowing ones self to just drift, and drift and drift. Nothing to distract you. Nothing to give life any kind of significance. She suffered frequent depressive episodes. All because she felt so... Meaningless? Insignificant? Something along those lines.

So, naturally, when Alterra Corps. offered her a job in Alterra H.Q. , she accepted the position with vigor. She worked as an I.T. there, and for a good extra credits and excitement, she also took up a job as an emergency helpline operator, and she was living arguably better than the past five years? Maybe even more. But, all that aside, she felt absolutely elated. She was doing something to help somebody other than herself. Despite the decisive lack of villain fighting and explosions and high speed chases, she felt like some sort of hero. The thankful and heartfelt words told by wreck survivors lifted her soul to high heaven. They sounded so... Scared. Pained. Hopeless. How could she NOT help? How could she call herself human if she didn't?

So that's how she found herself sitting in the Anti-Grav train, the luxuriously soft and plush cushioning allowing her to relax and take a moment to think. She checked over all her things. She had her shiny, black metallic briefcase, her makeup was looking okay, she felt well rested, she had her PDA (Complete with countless pictures and videos. She has hobbies.) And she had on her Alterra uniform. Honestly, despite the decidedly lacking color system of just stark white and black and orange highlights, they apparently care more for employee uniforms and such. It just had more of an oomph to it, more striking, more authoritative. It was quite nice, and comfy to boot. 

The main color was black, followed closely by white accents and orange highlights along the borders of the two along with some slashed in in a few choice places. It had a white dress shirt, with a black tie (Branded by Alterra with an ornate golden pin). Covering that was the business jacket. The sides of her abdomen below her ribs were ribbed and quilted, in a black color, and the outfit below her ribs was white aside from that. Her ribs and up were mixed, in a smooth, slick design that blended well. The business pants were black, along with her heels. All in all, it was just... nice. Probably more expensive than her entire closet.

But that's not the point. 

She got out at her station at the foot of the towering Alterra H.Q. It was massive, imposing, a beacon. And that was probably the point, with how cutthroat Alterra is on the business side of things. And the social hierarchy. And employee pay. A lot of things, really. She walked through the doors into reception, and greeted one of her best friends at work, Natalia. She was a good person, with an upbeat personality, and extremely fast in almost every sense of the word. She spoke fast, moved fast, thought fast, and it was all very fluid. A very enviable skill indeed.

"Hey, Nat." Wren greeted, to which the shorter Burnett returned with vigor. "Wren!" They continued to have some back and forth conversation, much of it unrelated as Natalia was unrelenting in her conversations. It had Wren verbally and mentally tripping and stumbling as she hopped from one conversation topic to the next, leaving the poor pale woman  rushing to keep up. However, they were both just used to it. Co-workers looked on, some in amusement, some of the newer in confusion. Wren could sympathize. The first time she ever spoke with Natalia she thought the woman didn't even pause for breath as she rambled at speeds light would view with jealousy.

"I gotta head up to the office now, I'm due in, like..." She checked her PDA. Now, in this moment, everyone was relatively silent, having mainly been trying to decipher anything of what was being said. It was pretty much a game at this point. Some even placed bets and asked Natalia or Wren later. Naturally, they had no idea. But the point is, it was silent. The hum of machinery and electricity taking prevalence over everything. So, naturally,, when Wren screamed "SHIT!" in panic, most flinched and looked around to see what the crisis was. 

What they saw would be forever ingrained in their minds.

Here she comes, Wren, almost the epitome of "I don't really want to move," bolting down the hallway like an Olympic sprinter. She had all of two minutes to get where she needed to be. And the most striking detail to them would be the distinct sound that the unique composition of the female worker's high heels made by Alterra created when they hit the floor around the office. Except at rapid speeds. The men shuddered violently when they realized just what was happening, and the women had varied reactions, some looking on in awe, others (The ore rule-inclined ones) looked on in shock and indignation, and a few even looked like they had done the same before. And after she passed, those women all looked at their male coworkers with a smile. It was chaos. The security team had a good time making a few jokes and memes with the footage of her bolting.

But none of that mattered because she made it while only being about two minutes late. And for that, it was a victory to her. 

But it left her in just a state of exhaustion for the next five minutes or so. However, she was relatively fine afterwards. She started her day, looking through files, helping people around, responding to a few dazed callers on what to do and where to go. However, it was nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly not in the realm of impossibility.  All she had to do was ask them what they saw and what the situation is. Then helped accordingly. But surprisingly, nothing was really going on. Nothing to really grab her attention as noteworthy.

That's why when she got a call from a signal whose signal was triangulated to be in the solar system of S-4546 (Which, if you ask Wren, the government has horrid naming tendencies.) That already was setting off a few red flags. First, it was triangulated. That either means the location sensors in the PDA are damaged, or that it's outside federation space. She checked, and yes, it was out of F.S. So, that's already pretty bad. The signal was bad, and when she picked it up she expected it to be patchy. It took a while to connect, and she hoped that they don't hang up before she can contact them. It finally patched through, and she was immediately greeted by the shrill, piercing sound of feedback. She winced and cursed internally at the pain in her suffering ears while making adjustments. She got it to be as good as it can be.

She greeted them with the default “Hello, this is Alterra™ HQ! How can I be of assistance today?” and cursed herself internally. She put WAY too much enthusiasm and happiness into that to try and cover the fact her ears are still ringing with the phantom sound of high-pitch feedback that assaulted her senses. She expected to hear some kind of sobbing, or a dead, tired voice, but instead her ears were filled with the voice of a man. He sounded... Mostly alright, and full of determination, with a underlying tone of something akin to anger, maybe frustration. She couldn't tell that well through the sub-par connection. However, his voice didn't sound all too unpleasant. “Yeah, so, this is Chief Engineer Jess Sergio. I was a crew member aboard the Aurora? You got all that so far?” She liked him. Right to the point, no need for consolation. She began her search in Alterra crew logs. "Jess... Sergio, was it?" She inquired. There was a number of Jess-s in Alterra. "Yeah." He replied. She couldn't really blame him for not being talkative if he was in an emergency. "Gotcha, you said you were a Chief Engineer?" She didn't want to get the wrong guy by mistake. Sue her. "Yep." Came the man's- Jess's- short reply. "So, Mr. Sergio-" She started, pulling up a site to document her progress with this survivor. But, she was cut off. "Call me Jess, please. It'll make this a lot easier." He seemed to be one of those "Crash Veterans" that Natalia told her about. The ones who have seen this whole song and dance and got out. It kinda makes her job easier. 

"Ooookaaay! Jess! How are you? What's the problem?" She began, still putting on her customer service voice. "Have you not got the signal yet? What district am I talking to?" He sounded impatient, like there was something really, really, REALLY big. That sent her blood pressure into a big spike. However, she pushed her anxiety away for a moment. "I don't know but you're talking to the Alterra Help Line." She supplied. There was an audible sigh, the only kind of sigh one would use when you have to drop the news that your favorite grandmother died. She was about to ask what he meant, but he beat her to the punch. "The Aurora crashed."  Any and all fake happiness died then and there. She was there when the Aurora was built. It was one of the best ships that Alterra had. _Now that I think about it, the Aurora was built to.... Oh. Oh no. It was going on an expedition, wasn't it?_

"The-The Aurora crashed?" She almost whispered in dread. If her colleagues didn't know, she didn't want to cause panic. She will, however, have a nice talk as to why no one was informed. This was where Jess could actually talk a bit more, because this isn't as simple as a Yes-or-no answer. “Yeah. We were heading over a planet to see if it was suitable to build a phasegate near it, maybe even a colony on the planet, but as we approached, I saw something green keep growing. Next thing I know, a giant beam of energy came and hit the Aurora. It was powerful. ONE shot took down the entire ship. I managed to eject at the last minute, but my pod got messed up. So, I went out, got stuff, and fixed it.” That insinuated a lot of things. Chief among them, Aliens. Yes, while aliens have been proven to exist, such as that hive mind on Strader VI, but they weren't sentient. It's kinda like a bee colony, with a clear rank system, but no real... intelligence. Hives tend to have very little intelligence, shockingly. So, on a planet that is well out of F.S. that happens to have a weapon capable of taking down a large starship like the Aurora which held everything in it to supply a small city and create what is essentially a portal. That heavily insinuates aliens with high intelligence and most likely high-level sentience. This, of course, got her bouncing in her seat like a caffeinated child with ADHD. “Oh my god, aliens! I KNEW they existed somewhere!” She could almost HEAR the confusion just from the way the silence came through. Then it was broken by a very confused and semi-agitated "I'm sorry, what?"

This is when Wren realized that she was slowly making this man loose faith that he would be rescued because the help line is too busy gushing about aliens and all that other crap.  “OH! Um, sorry, I’m just… really into conspiracies.” She admitted. Aside from photography, her other main hobby was conspiracies. Mainly either validating or debunking them. It was then that she realized that she hadn't even given the man her name. Lotta good that training did, eh?  “My names Wren. But anyway! So you crashed, right? Do you remember the name of the planet.?” He thought. “Yeah, I think it was… 4546B. Or one of the planets in the 4546 solar system. It’s a class 3 ocean planet, oxygen atmosphere. The works. There’s alien life like you wouldn’t believe. No, intelligent life to speak of so far, but the peepers seem pretty smart for their size.” She started typing all the information with haste, and a few minor spelling mistakes corrected by her spell check. This was exciting. Not only is this possibly one of the worst crashes, but there was actual aliens with enough intelligence to build weapons, a (literal) whole new world to explore. Wren could practically FEEL the stocks invested into research of the planet, and she never knew anything of the stock market to begin with. Scientific leaps and bounds, millions of potential job opportunities, all just for this one planet alone, never mind what else might be discovered on the planet. But, she pushed those thoughts aside. Rescue first, then she can worry about the government covering up the Aurora 

However, her attention was stolen from her entirely by just one... Oddly cute sounding name. “Peepers?” She asked, with the direness of the situation being the only thing that stopped her from breaking out into laughter. “Yeah. Hold on just a second.” Jess said, and she could hear him grabbing things before she heard the telltale  _hiss_ that the lifepod hatches make when being opened or closed, because they're pressurized or whatever. She wasn't an engineer.  _You ARE talking to one, though._ Her mind supplied. After about two or three minutes, she heard the hatch open once more, this time accompanied by the sound of water sloshing, then the hatch closing, and the faint sound of rather large amounts of water dripping against titanium flooring. She heard his footsteps draw closer a lot quicker than she expected. Then again, most lifepods ARE able to act as a temporary house for two people, so it would probably be the size of a small room. "You still there, Wren?" He asked, and she could hear him pull up his PDA. "Yeah. Let me see the alien fishie" She said with the vocal equivalent of grabby hands. She received a picture of the man in question. He was in a all-terrain spacesuit, with a diving mask on. He had one hand held up in a peace sign, and surrounding him were odd looking alien fish, with gigantic yellow eyes and little beaks.  _You know, i think peepers DOES sound like a fitting name when I see it now._ And it, like it's name, was oddly cute. In it's own way.

 After he sent the picture, she got a message that communications have been swapped to the PDA. She instantly heard an audio difference, coming through much clearer. She went on to continue talking with him for a good while, helping him whenever she can, and both of them largely ignoring the PDA whenever it chimed for him to get oxygen.They talked, the topic changing from Jess's bad names and talk of rescue. He continued to do things, but soon she was met with a very tense and serious "Hold on." from Jess. She stopped her idle chatter and listened. She heard the PDA start talking about what she assumed was bad, but she didn't really understand it. However, her fears were cemented when a hissed  _"Shit!"_ from Jess. That sent her into confusion and a bit of panic. "Jess? Jess! What's happening? What does that mean!?" and was only met with a very quiet and grim voice that sounded like he was gritting his teeth. "Quantum detonation." That sounded... Bad, to be an understatement. "Wha-"

She tried to pry further, but was cut off by Maya. 

“ _Quantum detonation_ _imminent_ _. In T-minus: 10… 9…_ _8… 7… 6… 5… 4-*#$@... 3-3-3… 2…_ ** _1_** ** _.”_**

Then, a HUGE explosion sounded, making her flinch hard despite the ten second warning. It sounded VIOLENT. Like some kind of nuke going off. She started panicking, yelling at Jess and trying to see if he was alright, but was met with nothing. The last things she heard were the sounds of a large swell of water forming like a tsunami, an audible impact, and then the sound of water enveloping the microphone, before she assumed the PDA cut off communications. She tried to contact Jess over and over, a cold sweat forming on her, as she grew more and more anxious. After a good 15 minutes or so of repeated attempts, she sat back in her chair, leaning back. "Shit..." She muttered. Did she just have her first client die on her? What happened to him? Will this affect her pay? Are there any more survivors? All these questions and a million more flew through her head at mach speeds.

She glanced at her computer clock before looking up at her screen. She sat up more, determined to see if she could find out anything. She ran over everything she knew, and made some note on things she didn't. She checked the connection to her computer and the PDA. It was still there. She ran her eyes over the records of Jess's health right before the explosion and after, noting that other than some bruising and possible fractures or sprains, he was relatively okay. Maybe he was a floater? God, she hoped so. She sat back in her seat again with a heavy sigh. It was almost time for her to leave.  _I think some food and rest would be best right now... Yeah, that sounds nice._ She got up and walked out, scanning her ID card to show she clocked out, and headed back to her modest apartment in the city. Her mind, however, was fixated on Jess and his situation. She was going to use everything at her disposal to help this man. 

That night, she fell asleep at her computer table, her old conspiracy boards cleared and filled with what she knew about this. This might be one of the biggest rescues in Alterra history. And by God she will be at the head of it.


End file.
